Epidemic
by Stratusfied247
Summary: An epidemic has struck Port Charles, and the risk of death is high. The lives and loves of these people are explored as they face this biological danger. Contains multiple characters and pairings. Please see inside for complete details.
1. First Wave

_**Author's Notes: This is my own tweaking of the current epidemic storyline. While I like the idea and the drama it would lend to, I don't like where it might be headed. So, I've done it my own way. A few notes to be made:**_

_**1) There are cast changes because I write with certain people in mind. Emily is Amber Tamblyn. AJ will be Sean Kanan. Carly is Tamara Braun. Lucky is still Greg Vaughn.  
2) Stefan Cassadine is not dead, and nothing happened starting at Stefan trying to kill Emily.  
3) Diego Sanchez is still in town and he was not the stalker.  
4) AJ Quartermaine is not dead and he had nothing to do with the kidnappings.  
5) Luis Alcazar is not dead. He returned to Port Charles months back, and is in a relationship with Elizabeth Webber. On that vain, other couples will include: Jason and Sam, Carly and Lorenzo, Emily and Nikolas, and others.  
6) Make sure to pay attention to the chapters denoting Wave. First Wave and Second Wave, possibly Third Wave. These chapters will let you know exactly whose illnesses, relationships and drama that this story will focus on. Others will appear, but these will be the main focuses of the story.  
**_

_**If you have any other questions about the story as it progresses, please feel free to ask. And now, on to the story.

* * *

**_

Sam McCall was a strong woman. She had survived a mother that hated her, a negligent father, abusive boyfriends, and a stillborn birth. She had found her way out of a raging fire and held guns on the heads of the five families. When it came to survival and strength, Sam was at the top of the heap. Yet, she couldn't manage to stand up straight without holding on to the wall.

Sweat poured down Sam's head, and she wasn't able to stop it all from falling into her eyes. The sweat stung and she rubbed her eyes. She threw both hands to her face and her body bumped against the wall. She slid down to the floor and was unable to make herself stop. She was sick, and Sam would have sworn she had a fever higher than anything she'd ever had before.

This was the wrong time to be sick. Danny was coming. She and Jason were, once again, in heated baby debate. An illness would just screw things up. Though, things getting messed up was pretty much par for the course. It happened so often that she'd come to expect it. So, it figured that the one time she didn't think about it was the one time that it actually happened.

"Jason!" She called out for him, and it had to be delusional. She didn't just call him randomly to get up off the floor. She was strong enough to do that for herself. Besides, Jason wasn't there. He was going to get Danny, wasn't he? Or had he already gotten him? Were they upstairs, showing Danny his room? The room that, at one time, was going to be Lila's? Or were they waiting for her at Kelly's?

"Jason! I can't--" Sam stopped and shook her head. She felt her body sliding to the side. Why couldn't she get up? "Jason," she muttered weakly, "I can't get up."

* * *

Cameron Webber sometimes cried, but Luis Alcazar had never heard the boy whine before. He was sure that Elizabeth would have said that her son whined a lot, but Luis couldn't remember a time that he would considered it as such. He would have called it an intense plea for affection. But this, right now—this was definitely a whine. 

Luis knew that this wouldn't impress Elizabeth at all. Granted, he was almost positive that he was beyond the impressions point. She was as taken with him as she could possibly be. She had, after all, left her son in his care. Yes, there were guards around and Audrey Hardy's number had mysteriously appeared programmed into his cell phone, but for the moment, for all intents and purposes, Luis was the immediate caregiver for little Cameron.

As caregiver, Luis assumed that he should take the boy to the hospital. His fever was growing rapidly, and the whines were becoming less shrill and more pained. Not that he had avoided taking him before. Elizabeth would probably be grateful that Luis was so paranoid as to bring Cameron to the hospital for a slight fever. However, the actual action of getting him there grew harder the more tired that Luis became.

Sweat dripped from the line of his hair to ooze down his face. He wiped at his forehead with the back of his hand. Sweat started to dry and congeal against his hand and he shook it away in disgust. Luis bent to lift Cameron, and suddenly, the boy was heavier than he remembered. Luis's knees buckled, arms started to give way, and he had to force himself back to his feet.

Cameron gave a small, strangled cry and Luis held him tighter. Carefully, he made his way towards the door. He should have called to have the car brought around, but he knew he wouldn't have been able to hold Cameron with only one arm. He would just have to call from the lobby. Leaning against the wall perhaps.

"Don't worry," he muttered as Cameron started to shiver against him, "you'll be with _tua madré_ soon. I promise you that." And as soon as he handed the boy to his mother, maybe Luis thought, she might have a free arm to hold him up as well.

* * *

"Diego, don't argue with me. You're ill. You need medical attention." 

"I'm fine." Diego Sanchez waved his father off, pushing weakly at the hand that tried to touch his forehead. "Carly's expecting you."

"I think she'll understand. If it were Michael or Morgan, she would be just as quick to postpone our date."

"And Michael would be more than happy to let her. But I'm not Michael, Pop. I'm fine. Just go."

Diego started to cough and his body was thrown forward. He folded his arms over his stomach and leaned forward. In the back of his throat, he thought that something was going to rise. It would have had to have been bile, because there was no food that he could choke down. Even soup seemed to get caught in his throat and he had to spit it back out.

Lorenzo touched his back, and Diego was glad he was there. The two had their differences in the past, but the fact that he was actually there meant something. He may have been arguing with him, trying to get him to leave, but Lorenzo was still there. Diego was more important than Carly, and he'd never thought that would happen. He never thought he'd get any higher than secondary to Luis.

But still—

"I'm fine, Pop. Just go."

"You're not fine, so be quiet." Lorenzo put an arm around Diego's waist and lifted him from the bed. "You're weak. This cough is getting worse by the second, and you're burning up. You're going to the hospital, Diego, so don't fight me on it."

"But, Carly—"

"I'll call her from the car. Right now, you're more important than a date that can be rescheduled. We're going to the hospital, and that is final."

* * *

The launch from Wyndemere to the Port Charles mainland was the longest ride that Nikolas Cassadine had ever taken. Wrapped in a thick comforter, Nikolas huddled in a corner of the boat, trying his best to stay warm. The February air was nowhere near as cold as the chills that ran through his body. Even if the sun were to suddenly rise and heat the air to 80 degrees, he still wouldn't have been able to get warm. 

Nikolas tried to remember how he'd gotten so sick. He could barely remember the onslaught of the illness, let alone how he could have contracted anything. Maybe it had come on slowly. Maybe the virus had crept up on him so slowly that he couldn't remember a progressive timeline. Or maybe it was like he vaguely remembered it. One second he was fine, sitting across the table from Emily, and the next, he had tried to stand up and promptly fell to the floor.

"We're almost there." Nikolas could just barely hear Emily's voice, but what he could hear soothed him as best it could. Her hand touched his head and her touch seemed to vibrate against him. "Hold on, Nikolas, we're almost there."

"C-C-Cold…" His teeth chattered. The rows clicked against one another. He wished he could pull the words together to tell Emily how much he appreciated her doing this. How much he loved her. But, his consciousness was fleeting. He floated in and out of a rational state so much that he couldn't form more than one word at a time. More than one syllable was asking a lot. "L-L-Love…"

"Hush." Emily moved around him. Eyes closed, Nikolas couldn't see what she was doing, but he could feel her careful and tentative movements. He felt his body lift then lower. His head rested on a pillow, and it took him a minute to realize it wasn't a pillow at all. It was her Emily's lap. "You'll be okay," she said as she softly rubbed his head. "The ambulance is waiting at the pier. You'll be okay."

"Thank y-y-y-" It wasn't happening. He wasn't going to get the entire thing out, but she knew what he meant. She had to know. She always knew.


	2. Incoming Part 1

There was a thumping at her side, something pushing against her. The ache from the hits was nothing compared to the general ache of her entire body. Sam's eyelids fluttered, and she tried to open her eyes as she was pushed across the floor. She wanted to quip that it was rude to slide a sick person over the floor, but nothing came out of her mouth but a groan.

Someone was kneeling beside her in a second, and Sam knew that scent. Soap and gun powder. Only Jason could mix the smells and not stink. He was talking to her, but she could barely understand what he was saying. Her name. She recognized her name. She grunted and her eyelids fluttered again.

"Jason? What's wrong with Sam?"

So he had been going to get Danny, after all. Sam wanted to tell her brother to get away. He could catch whatever she had. She probably would have given the same warning to Jason if she weren't feeling rather selfish at the moment. Danny could be protected. Jason—She just wanted him to hold her and comfort her.

"Open your eyes, Sam. Look at me." She was able to just barely peak them open, just enough to catch a brief glimpse of his midsection before her eyes fell again. "Come on, Sam, look at me. A little wider. Sam, open your eyes."

"Sam?" Danny was kneeling next to her. She felt him coming closer, felt him hover over her. He touched her face, then jerked back with a hiss. "She's hot like the stove, Jason. What's wrong with Sam?"

Something that sounded like a stutter came from Jason, and then, "Sam's sick, Danny, but she's going to be fine. We're taking her to the hospital, and she'll be fine."

"Sam, wake up! Sam! Sam, you gotta wake up, okay? You gotta!"

"Danny!" Jason's voice was sharp. Sam opened her eyes to bare slits and could see the frustration and fear on his face. Her eyelids drooped shut again, and she was back in darkness. "Danny, calm down. You have to be strong, okay? Sam's going to be fine."

"But…"

"She's going to be fine."

Sam felt herself being lifted and she whimpered. The motion made her head ache, like it was splitting open. "Hot," she muttered, and then a second later, "cold." She curled in a ball against Jason's body and shuddered. "Freezing."

Jason held her tighter and presed his lips to her head. Sam thought that she must have been burning her. She may have been cold, but Danny said she was like the stove. She was burning up. It had to have hurt to be so close to her skin. "You're going to be fine. I'll find Robin, and she'll fix this. She'll know what to do."

Sam wanted to be jealous that he instantly thought to go to Robin, but all she had within her was relief that he was with her. That he was holding her close to his chest, where she could hear his heart beating at a furious pace, and that he was thinking of how to make her better. How to save her.

* * *

People were scrambling the hospital floor as Luis made his way inside, leaning against one of his guards and holding Cameron as tightly as he could. His left arm was shaky, but he had to hold the gun steady. Didn't these people understand? He was not relinquishing the boy to anyone other than his mother. If he had to shoot his way through the emergency room, he would place Cameron safely into Elizabeth's hands.

All around them, people were swarming into the hospital. Emergency personnel were wheeling people in on gurneys from the loading bay. Ambulances. Speeding cars. Taxicabs. Motorcycles. Whatever mode of transportation was the quickest and most disposable. Luis's own limousine was amongst the rabble, waiting to see if Luis came back out.

Cameron was quiet now, and that scared Luis. However, he couldn't take his eyes off of the security guards that surrounded him to look at the boy. He had to keep them at bay. What would Elizabeth think if he wantonly gave her son to someone else? If others in the hospital knew that he were sick before she did? That was not acceptable.

"Back away!" Luis shook his head briskly. Someone came towards him and he forced his body upright. Every muscle hurt. His body wanted to collapse upon itself, but that had to wait. He couldn't give over to the pain and tire just yet. "Elizabeth!" He shook his head again. "Elizabeth Webber!"

Muttering. Someone rushed past him, pushing against him. Jason Morgan? Luis had to squint to see that he rushed forward with Sam McCall in his arms. Another one sick? So, it wasn't just himself and Cameron. Perhaps the flu was invading Port Charles. Lovely.

He murmurred, "Lovely. Elizabeth…" His head started to swim, and he thought he saw Elizabeth standing in front of him. "I love you," he said in a lazy voice. Words that he had felt for over a month now, but been too afraid to speak. Too afraid that they would scare her away. But now, his head was so far gone that nothing stopped him from saying them.

"Mr. Alcazar? Luis?" Elizabeth wouldn't address him so formally. Luis blinked twice to see Bobbie Spencer standing in front of him. How could he have mistaken her red hair for Elizabeth's chestnut? "Oh my God, Cameron. Luis, you have to give him to me."

"No!" He stood up straighter still. His body screamed against the movement, but Luis wouldn't give in. "Elizabeth!" She probably couldn't hear him. Even to his own ears, his voice sounded weak. "Elizabeth Webber. I have to give him to his mother."

"She's coming, Luis, but right now, Cameron needs medical attention, and so do you. Please, put the gun down so we can help you both."

"I can wait. First, Cameron. First…" He started to droop, but then he heard her voice and knew that it was her. He stood up straight and opened his eyes. "Elizabeth…"

"Cameron?" She ran forward, and as expected, snatched the burning boy from Luis's arms. He had expected as much. She was a mother and her son came first. "Oh my God, Cameron. Help! Dr. Jones, it's Cameron!"

She was preoccupied, understandably. Admirably. Luis would have thought he had misjudged her had she taken the time for him. However, with Cameron safely in his mother's protective grasp, Luis could allow his own illness to take him under. Within seconds of relinquishing Cameron, Luis collapsed to the floor. His gun clanked against the floor beside him. He felt the shadows of people around him and medical jargon told him that they were doctors and nurses. And faintly, he could hear a gasp that he thought had to be hers. Before the crowd overtook him, he saw Elizabeth turn a shocked and worried glance in his direction, and he tried to smile at her. "Cameron is safe," he muttered, and then the gap was closed and he could see her no more.


	3. Incoming Part 2

"Pop, I told you, I'm fine." That might have been more convincing had it not been promptly followed by his knees buckling. Diego pushed himself back up, using his father for leverage. "See? Fine."

"Definitely an Alcazar." Lorenzo hefted his son with a grunt. "Stubborn to the core."

"Just like you."

Diego thought he heard Lorenzo laugh, but his ears were rapidly clogging. Sound was muffled and the light in the room started to fade. He felt himself being lowered and stretched. The gurney was uncomfortable enough to make Diego wish yet again that Lorenzo had left him in his bed. At least hen he could have died in comfort.

Yeah, Diego was pretty sure that this was what death felt like. Of course, if he really wanted to know, he could have asked his uncle. Luis would probably share the experience if Diego made him mad enough. It sure as hell worked for Lorenzo.

When he was aware, Diego was in pain. The fever made his body tired, his muscles sore. His chest ached with each attempt to breathe. His eyes burned then the air him them. His head was pounding in rhythm to his frantically beating heart.

When consciousness left him, Diego was standing between identical Alcazars. From hair to shoes, they looked exactly alike and Diego couldn't tell them apart. One defended him, said that he was Alcazar and deserved the right to be addressed as such. The other said he'd proven nothing, that Alcazar was given at birth, no later. Neither addressed the other by name. When he said, "Pop," both men turned. Neither called him son.

One state was worse than the other. One state was preferable to the other. Damned if Diego knew which one, though.

"Great," someone muttered, "another Alcazar."

"At least this one isn't wielding a gun."

Diego thought the voices sounded familiar, though he couldn't place them. Maybe he was just delusional again. But what did they mean another Alcazar? Waving a gun?

"Pop?" People were bothering him. A sharp stick in Diego's right arm alerted him to the IV. "Pop! Where are you?"

Diego's eyes opened and people were looking at him in confusion. He called out once more and only then did he realize that he was unintelligable. He was speaking Spanish. "Dammit," he muttered. "Pop, what's wrong?"

And suddenly there was something or someone more important than Diego. Lorenzo stood a few feet away, back towards him. For a split second, Lorenzo's body went weak, but he corrected that error. Only when he was standing straight and turning towards him did Diego see Elizabeth.

Elizabeth Webber? Luis's girlfriend?

"Pop—"

"Diego, nevermind. Worry about your own health."

"No. Something—" Diego shoved against the nurses pressing icepacks all over him. "What's going on!"

Lorenzo was there in a flash, holding him to the bed, keeping him in place. "If I tell you, will you let them help you?" Diego nodded and Lorenzo sighed. "It's Luis. He's in a bed down the hall."

* * *

Stefan Cassadine would not have been Emily's first choice of pereson to battle. Actually, he wasn't her last choice, either. If she could make it through the remainder of her life with no more arguments between Stefan and herself, she'd be perfectly content. Of course, that was like asking Grandfather to lay off of AJ or Cook letting anyone in her kitchen. It wasn't very likely to happen.

He already didn't like her. As far as Stefan was concerned, Emily wasn't good enough. Thing was, Emily didn't think anybody would ever be good enough to reach the pedestal that Stefan put Nikolas on. Oh sure, if a full-blooded Russian princess showed up she would be good enough. But since that was as likely to happen as an elbow magically sprouting from her nose, there was no perfect, worthy woman for Nikolas Cassadine. Since Emily wasn't worthy, Stefan didn't like her. If she'd not told him of Nikolas's condition immediately, Emily was sure he'd have waged all out war on her.

So, she did the best she could. She called him before they took off on the launch. The conversation was as quick as she could possibly make it. "Nikolas is sick. He's got a really high fever and chills. We're getting on the launch now, and an ambulance will be there to meet us at the docks." She considered waiting for some show of gratitude, but considering who she was talking to, Nikolas would have died on Spoon Island before that happened.

"Oh my God, are you kidding me?" Emily never thought she'd find herself truly standing up to Stefan, but there she was, freezing her butt off on the pier, glaring at the one man who had ever been able to put fear in her with just a look. "There is no way that I'm letting Nikolas go without me!"

"You have done your duty, now let the rest of us do ours." Stefan folded his arms, and though he did his best to look his usual, restrained self, Emily could see the worry in his eyes. That was the only reason she wasn't running in fear. Because he didn't give her the eyes of an over-protective guardian. He gave her the eyes of a concerned parent, even if it were unintentional. "You can meet us at the hospital if you wish, but I am riding with him."

"Ya know what? That's bull!" She put her hands to her head and squeezed at the roots of her hair. Emily's arms dropped and she let out a ragged cry. "I told him that I wasn't leaving him, and I'm damn sure not about to do that now! You are not leaving me standing here while you go and pretend that you were the one with him all along!"

"I do not now, nor have I ever pretended anything where Nikolas were concerned. I am his family. I am his blood."

"And I'm his fiancée!" Okay, so she hadn't meant to say that. Nikolas wasn't sure that his uncle was ready to hear that he was marrying someone that he deemed unworthy. That's what they were talking about when he collapsed. "Okay, how about you forget I said that until Nikolas is ready to say that?"

"Oh, believe me, that will not be forgotten. I would voice my objections this second if there weren't more pressing matters."

"Exactly! Pressing matters!" Emily screamed again. She didn't understand how Stefan could be so calm during this. How he could stand there and argue with her without letting the strain show. Did he really fight and win so often that the fight itself held no feeling for him? Or did he think just that lowly of her, that he wasn't worth the time and effort? "Nikolas could die while you stand here arguing with me!"

"Then perhaps you should stop arguing. If you wish, I can have Darius drive you—"

"No!" Not only was Stefan a man that she never thought she'd really go head-to-head with, she also never thought that she would cut him off. Obviously, he had never thought so either, because his face was lit with surprise. "I am going with him. You can ride with Darius!"

"I'll make the decision for you." The EMT stepped up between them, looking as though he were prepared to stop randomly swinging fists. "She goes," he said with a jerk of his thumb towards Emily, "because she was there on the onset, and we'll need as much information as possible on the way to the hospital. You can follow us. Now, get in the back and let's go before he gets any worse."

Emily resisted the urge to stick her tongue out at Stefan, and it was definitely the biggest urge she'd ever had in her life. She also restrained herself before she started jumping up and down with her arms waving in the air. She had won the fight. She'd actually won a showdown with Stefan Cassadine. Winning over Grandfather was nothing in comparison to that.

But, she knew that this wasn't the end of things. He would bring the engagement up again. And he would most definitely be prepared for the next showdown, to be sure that he didn't lose, again. The ride with Darius was more than enough time for him to plan a strategy, and the next time, it was quite possible that Emily would lose.

But for the moment, that didn't matter. Nikolas was sick. So sick that he was barely conscious. He probably hadn't even heard any of the fight, and if he had, he was too weak to tell them both to stop it. That meant that he was worse than Emily wanted to believe, and she had to get him to the hospital. Fights with his uncle could wait. Right now, Nikolas was the one that mattered.


	4. Jason

**_Author's Note: Since I did away with AJ having anything to do with the kidnapping and the horrible death he was given, some of Jason's history has changed. As you'll see in the chapter, Jason's recent near-death experiment was because of a head injury, not that experimental drug. Anything else you need to know is laid out in the chapter.

* * *

_**

"I found her like this," he was saying. "Burning up, but she was shivering. Her skin is hot to the touch, but all she's said is how cold she is."

Jason Morgan was less equipped for this kind of thing than Jason Quartermaine would have been. Ten years since the accident that left him brain damaged and he could still remember what his former self had learned as a medical student. He knew the information needed and could rattle it off easily. After that, though, he was at a loss.

He'd been speaking non-stop the last few minutes, repeating himself over and over. The emergency room was loud and boisterous. Something might have gotten lost in the noise, some piece of information that could mean the difference between life and death.

"Jason, you've said that ten times already. Calm down. Take a breath."

That was easy for her to say. Robin Scorpio knew exactly what she was doing. That's why Jason had run into the hospital screaming her name. She would know what the problem was and how to fix it. Where Jason Quartermaine's knowledge left off, Robin's picked up and ran with it.

Besides, she was used to sitting back and waiting. Jason wasn't a waiter. He did things. He moved. He was action personified. What good did sitting around and waiting do? For Robin, the end results were the tests that had been run. Answers to the questions. For Jason? Was there even an end to the waiting? He just sat there, doing nothing, being useless. Jason didn't know how to be useless.

Jason took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "When she's not saying she's cold, she's muttering things that—" He shook his head. His eyes closed for a second and he shook his head again. "She started mumbling, and all I heard was liar and Lila. If she's unconscious, then she's dreaming about our—her baby. The fever never settled. It only grew the entire ride here."

"Jason, please." Robin shook her head and let her body sag. "I understand what's going on here. You two have just been through something horrible. Faith Roscoe kidnapping the kids. Re-injury to your head, the treatment to get your memories back-- It's a lot to deal with. You're under a lot of pressure, and this isn't something that you know how to handle."

"I- I'm not used to being out of control. I handle things."

"I know. You always have." Robin's eyes went distant for a moment, and Jason sighed. It was amazing that, with their history, they could get along at all. Jason wondered if she were the first person she'd ever forgiven, and the last thing he would ever forget. Despite anything else, though, he was the person he trusted to keep Sam alive. The ways in which they knew each other would have to wait for another day.

Robin shook her head and sighed. "Why don't you handle Danny?" She put a hand to his arm and jerked her head to the side. "I don't think he's handling this too well. Let me worry about Sam, and I'll tell you as soon as we know anything."

Jason turned towards Danny and blinked. Admittedly, he'd forgotten that he was there. Sam would hate for Danny to be afraid. She knew that Jason wasn't very good at comforting, that it was hard for him to find the words. She had faith in him, though. She always told him that he could find a way to do anything when it was necessary. From Danny's agitation, Jason thought that it was necessary.

"Danny…"

He couldn't get more than his name out before the young man started babbling. "There are so many sick, Jason, and they all look like Sam. I hear them. The doctors. They don't know what's going on. There are children sick. There are old people and young people and people like you and me and Sam. What's going on, Jason? What's wrong with them? Will this be wrong with you, too? Sam can't die. You can't die."

"Danny." Jason let out a heavy sigh. "No one's going to die, Danny, especially not Sam. I won't let that happen."

"You can't stop it. Sam says you fix everything, but you can't fix this just like doctors can't fix me."

"You don't need to be fixed, Danny."

"Yes, I do. I—" He made a fist and pounded it three times into the side of his head. "I'm wrong right here. That's why Sam sent me away. I'm wrong here, but Sam still loves me."

"That's right. She loves you, and she would never leave you."

"She loves you, too. And you love her. You love Sam, right? You're going to get married, and you'll have a baby, and I'll be an uncle." For a moment, his face lit up with a smile, but as another sick person was rushed past him and he was pushed to the side, his smile dropped. "Sam has to be a mom, Jason."

"Danny—"

"She has to be everything that Mom always said she could never be. She was ashamed of us, but Sam was never ashamed of me. So, I can't lose her, because then there won't be anybody to not be ashamed of me. Sam can't die, Jason."

"She won't die." Jason's movements were jerking and tentative. He first put his left hand on Danny's shoulder. He pulled him slowly closer until Danny's head instinctively fell on his shoulder. He only had a moment's pause before his right hand came up and lightly cupped the back of Danny's head. Jason didn't really know what he was doing, how to hold him with comfort, so he just gave him the hug that he usually gave to Michael. He rolled his lips and held back his own frightened tears.

"She won't die," he said again, and his voice didn't hold conviction as much as hope.


	5. Elizabeth

She had no idea how he'd managed to get so far carrying Cameron. Luis could barely walk long distances without his cane carrying his own weight. That he actualy picked up her son and carried him for so long-- The man was amazing when it came to the things that he would do when it was necessary.

He could have given Cameron to one of the guards to carry. What good would it have done for his leg to give out on him with the boy in his arms? It was-- Well, the whole thing was just stupid. Holding an entire hospital at gunpoint, for crying out loud. He was lucky that no one was going to press charges. The WSB was in the hospital for Christ's sake! Federal charges could have been filed!

"What were you thinking? You could have-- There's no telling what could have happened to you." Elizabeth shook her head and sighed. "It has to be the fever. You're obviously delirious, because you wouldn't do something like that if you were in your right mind."

Elizabeth held herself tightly, arms wrapped around her midsection. There was too much going on, too many things that had happened between the time that she'd snatched Cameron from Luis's arms to the moment she walked to his bedside in the hallway. Cameron was sick. Luis was sick. Nikolas was sick. No one knew what was going on, and Luis still didn't know that his nephew was in the hospital as well. Or that his brother was trying to make the same decision that had been made for her.

"You shouldn't be here." Luis's voice was weak. Elizabeth had never heard him so drained. The closest she'd come to this was when his legs or his back spasmed on him. He was good enough to hide the remaining pain from his injuries from others, but not from her. And even his voice then hadn't been this bad. "You should be with Cameron."

"I was, until they put me out." She pouted, and that was when the gravity of this situation hit her. She had pouted with Luis before, and he always smiled or made some remark in Spanish that he refused to translate for her. This time, though, his face remained slack. His eyelids started to droop. "They told me I was in the way. And I know that they're right. I'm a nurse. I tell people to get out of the way all the time."

"But, he's your son." Elizabeth nodded. "That's why—" Luis shook his head and coughed violently. Elizabeth immediately rushed to his side, but he held a weak hand up. "No. Cameron doesn't need you sick, as well."

Elizabeth looked at Luis with incredulity. He never ceased to amaze her. This strong and ruthless businessman who looked out for number one was concerned about her well-being. He'd been so concerned with her son that he brought him to the hospital at the expense of his own health. People told her all the time that he was dangerous and that he would break her. He would destroy her the same way he'd done Brenda, or worse, but she'd never seen anything of the like in him.

She still wasn't sure exactly how they ended up together. How she'd found herself falling more and more under his spell. She knew what had happened to Brenda, and to Alexis's sister because of him. She knew all of the bad things he had done, but that had never stopped her before. Jason was a hitman, and she had still loved him. She'd taken Ric back after he kidnapped a pregnant woman and had been, herself, given pills that could have killed her. And before he became Officer Spencer, Lucky had been this thrilling rush of "not so honest." Danger didn't scare her, in fact, it excited her. But still, she kept away from him in the beginning.

But, Luis had saved Cameron. At his own expense, with his own pain at the helm, he dove into the pier. Elizabeth still wasn't sure how he'd fallen in. One second, he was standing there and the next, he was over the side. Before she could strip off enough to jump in, his cane had been tossed to the side and he was pushing towards Cameron. He came up with her son in his arms and, just like tonight, she'd snatched Cameron away, secured his well-being, and later, she had turned her attention to Luis.

Somehow, this man with his secrets and his heart held close had opened up to her. He had shown her a side that she was sure that no one besides his brother had ever seen. No, maybe Brenda had seen it. But no one since her, definitely. That he could give that much of himself to Elizabeth after being so broken, emotionally and physically-- She didn't really know how to take it.

"How can you do this, Luis? How can you think of so many others before yourself? Instead of just calling me, you brought Cameron to me. You knew you were sick. My God, how did you even manage to stand? Let alone carry him."

"Sheer force of will," he said with a grin.

"You have to be the most confusing man I have ever met. You-- You're lucky that you only have the fever and cough. So many others are getting worse by the second, and there's no guarantee that you won't get worse."

"Oh, I'm well beyond fever. I'm great when it comes to hiding the truth with my appearance. But don't worry. I'll tell you when I'm about to die. I've been there before. I know how it feels."

The words shocked her, but the drifting of his voice scared her. Maybe she needed to get a doctor in there. Robin Scorpio wasn't too far down the hallway, and Monica Quartermaine was nearby.

"My brother has done all this work, and it's not enough. My legs will never heal. My back is shattered." His head drifted to the side. "I loved the wrong woman." Luis shook his head and let his eyes settle on Elizabeth. "I loved you, and if I love her, it'll be the end of me."

"Luis?" Elizabeth took his hand, and it was a feat to hold it. His skin was burning up. Had he been this hot before? "Luis, it's Elizabeth."

"Are you here to kill me yourself this time, Brenda? Because I was able to love again after you?"

He had to be hallucinating. He was mixing past and present. And he loved her? Elizabeth shook her head. Maybe she should have herself checked out. Maybe she was the one hallucinating, imagining things that Luis said. There was too much going on for her to concentrate, to know what to say.

"Luis—" A scuffle along the wall whipped her head around. "I- I need to get a doctor. Stay with him. I have to check on Cameron, and Nikolas, and I have to find a doctor and—"

Elizabeth pulled away from Luis and streaked down the hallway. She left him screaming after her. "Don't come back without Elizabeth! Do you hear me, Brenda? Don't come back without Elizabeth." She left him shouting, and she left his brother to calm him down. Because she wasn't sure that she knew how to do it, not in the state that he was in.


	6. Lorenzo

He needed to see Luis, but he couldn't leave his son. Diego was sleeping, but he could have woken up. He didn't need to wake up alone in a crowded hallway. Lorenzo had failed him enough. He wasn't going to do that again.

But hadn't he failed Luis, also? Had he been paying attention, Brenda Barrett would have never come into Luis's life. Had he remained focused on the task at hand, his brother's daughter would still be alive. She would have never come to Port Charles. Had he told her the truth about her father, or just taken care of business-- He owed Luis his attention. He owed his brother a child. He could give him the first. Someone else was giving him the latter.

Flip a coin? Lorenzo almost laughed. Carly probably would have told him that. Heads Diego. Snake tails Luis. Or she'd just tell him to stay with Diego, because she wasn't a huge fan of Luis anyway. But Lorenzo didn't ask her to be his fan. She was only asked to accept the bond between the Alcazar twins. So, thinking that way, maybe she would have told him to go check on his brother.

Why on Earth was he thinking about Carly anyway? There were more pressing matters at hand.

"Why are both my son and my brother still in the hallway?"

"Mr. Alcazar—"

"I want no excuses. There are people who arrived after Diego who already have private rooms and I know that Luis was one of the first to arrive."

Dr. Tony Jones took in a deep breath and exhaled heavily. The man looked weary. "We only have so many rooms. We simply don't have enough space to give everyone a private room."

"Then get another hospital to take some. Mercy has room."

"We are under quarantine, Mr. Alcazar. No one is going anywhere, and unless they're sick, no one is getting in."

Lorenzo gave Tony his best glare, but it was doing nothing. "If this is about money—"

"This is about space."

"Fine, then put them in a room together. Just get them out of the hallway. You have fifteen minutes before I take matters into my own hands."

Lorenzo pivoted on his heel and got four steps toward Diego when he saw her. Auburn hair pulled back in a tight ponytail, Carly stood beside the gurney, holding Diego's hand. The young man was still asleep, but Carly was talking softly to him regardless.

Lorenzo walked up to her quickly. "Carly?" She turned to him and her face looked freshly scrubbed. "What are you doing here?"

"Momma called." Carly stopped to brush errant strands of hair out of her face. "I was going to stay in tonight. Sony has the boys so—" Carly shrugged. "But Bobbie called and said you might need me. That Diego and Luis were here."

"Elizabeth Webber told me he had a fever. That he brought her ill son to the hospital and collapsed, but I can't find anymore information. He's still in a hallway somewhere. I don't-- I haven't seen him and—"

"Go to him, Lorenzo." He looked at her with confusion and Carly rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I know. Not the biggest fan of your brother, but he's still your brother. You've done what you can for Diego, now it's time to do something for yourself. Ease your fears. Go find Luis, and I'll stay with Diego."

"Are you sure? Carly, you shouldn't even be here. How did you get in? We're under quarantine. None of us are going anywhere."

"Did you forget who you were talking to?" Carly winked and gave him a small grin. "I can sneak into anywhere if I really want to be there. And I really wanted to be here." Carly stepped towards Lorenzo, extending her body. She still held on to Diego's hand, but with her free hand, she reached out and lightly cupped Lorenzo's cheek. "Go see your brother. I'll be here with Diego, and if he finally gets a room, that's where I'll be. Don't worry, Lorenzo. He won't be alone."

Lorenzo rolled his face into Carly's palm and took in the scent of her lotion. Rose oil. He'd bought it from her and this was the first time he'd smelled it on her. That she was wearing it gave him some inexplicable calm. He let out a shuddering breath and whispered, "Thank you." He tore himself from her touch and rested a hand on Diego's leg. "I won't be gone long. I know you can't hear me now, but I want you to know that I'll be back."

It was hard, leaving Diego's side, but Lorenzo made his way down the hallway. People hurried past them, and more than once, he looked back to Diego. He turned back to see Elizabeth standing over Luis. His brother's eyes were wide, and the closer he became, he could feel the frantic energy pulsing from him. He stopped to lean against the wall, and that was when she turned. Their eyes locked for a moment, then she ran.

With Luis screaming after her, obviously delusional, Lorenzo moved to his side. He pushed his fighting brother back to the bed. "Luis!" He looked up to him and shook his head. "Luis, listen to me! It's Lorenzo, _hermano_."

"Lorenzo—" Luis had long since lost his accent, but Lorenzo had heard its return when he first came to Port Charles after his recuperation in Venezuela. It was slight, then, only coming out on certain words, but now, with his fevered brain racing, he sounded as he had before he'd first started his worldly travels.

Luis fell back against the bed and shuddered. He huddled into the covers, burying himself within their warmth. "Where is Elizabeth? She was here—Why are you here?"

Should he tell him? Would he just assume that he was there for him? Of course, if the room situation were worked out, he would know about Diego eventually. "Diego is sick," he said carefully. "He has the same sickness as you. He's just down the hall, and I'm trying to get the two of you into a room."

"Diego… _Dios Mio._" Luis groaned and rolled his head to the side. "Elizabeth. She should have been with Cameron. She came to see me. I said nothing wrong, did I? I didn't turn her away, did I?"

This time, it was easier to decide what to say. "No, Luis. She went to see her son. She'll be back for you."

"Good. I love her." Luis groaned. "I thought I'd never again, that it wasn't safe to love. But, Elizabeth… _mi corazon_. I love her, and I can not have her afraid of me."

"She's not afraid of you, Luis. She's afraid for you. And for her son, and her friends. A lot of people are sick."

"And you? You aren't—" Lorenzo shook his head and Luis sighed. "Good. Diego—You should be with him. Go be with your son."

"Carly is with him. I'm going to have you both put in a room together. I can't split my time. He's my son, Luis, but you are my brother. I can't leave you alone."

"I'm not alone. I have an angel. A nursing angel." He rolled onto his side and pulled the blankets around him. "I hurt, and I'm weary, but she won't let anything happen to me. I trust her."

But Luis often trusted the wrong people. He gave himself to the wrong woman. With all that was going on, this wasn't the time to have him do the same again. But, it was also not the time to take away his hope. For the time being, Lorenzo would let Luis believe whatever was necessary to stay strong. He'd nearly lost his twin once. He wasn't about to do the same again.


	7. Stefan

"You were the son I never had, Nikolas. The only child I could have ever truly wanted." Stefan gently rubbed his nephew's head. Nikolas was unconscious and, according to Emily, had been that way since arriving at the hospital. "I was unable to sit beside you during the ride, but I am here now. Know that I will not leave you, Nikolas."

Nothing that Nikolas suffered had ever been this painful for Stefan. The closest he could imagine was watching the agony when he donated bone marrow to Lesley Lu Spencer. At the time, however, there was something worthwhile in the endeavor. Though Stefan wasn't emotionally invested in the child's health, his lovely Lasha would be eased. Nikolas would be reunited with his mother. This, however—

There was nothing good that could come of this illness. There was no brighter lining to Nikolas's suffering. His life hung in the balance, and Stefan didn't know if Nikolas even realized that. Was his brain so incapacitated by this unknown virus that he didn't even know that he could die? That he didn't know that, should the worse happen, his uncle would be holding his hand to the end?

A rifling noise behind him made Stefan turn. He looked at Emily Bowen Quartermaine with a placid expression. The grief and fear that twisted his features while looking at Nikolas were replaced with straight, blank lines in the seconds that it took him to turn. Surviving Helena Cassadine gave one ample experience in controlling their emotions. Some things were not meant to be seen by others, and this was definitely one of those things.

Stefan had never approved of Nikolas's relationship with the young girl. There was no nobility to her birth. There was no finishing grace about her. While he had nothing personal against her, there was no place in the prince's life for someone who could never be a worthy bride.

Of course, Nikolas had argued that point with him before. Was Laura Spencer a woman of noble birth? Had Stefan cared that she wasn't descended from royalty when he fell in love with her? He had pined his life away for a woman who could never love him the way he deserved to be loved. Didn't Nikolas deserve to have that woman if she would let him?

He was too emotional. Stefan knew this would happen if he connected to closely with people in Port Charles. Had he not welcomed the interference of his brother and his friends, then he would see that despite the logic in his words, they didn't apply. Stefan wasn't the first son of the first son. He didn't have duties to attend. He didn't have expectations weighed on him. Nikolas, on the other hand, did.

She kept him preoccupied. More than once, Stefan was forced to step in to keep Cassadine Industries from going under. Too many times did Stefan have to tear Nikolas away from his precious Emily to handle his duties as the head of the Cassadine family. The only saving grace in any of these situations for Emily was that she had never argued. She allowed Nikolas to save his family, often encouraged him to handle business, told him that she could wait, because family seemed of some importance to her. It was the only thing that made Stefan tolerate her as opposed to actively trying to rid their family of her.

Though, currently, she seemed to be gaining another saving grace.

"He will probably not awaken for hours."

Emily shrugged. "Doesn't matter." She leaned against the wall and folded her arms. "I told him I wasn't going to leave him, and I'm not about to just because you're here."

This girl should have been afraid. Stefan had smelled the fear on her in the past, like a rancid stench floating off of her. But now, when he was at his most staunch and unrelenting, she would not back away. "This engagement can not go on."

"Excuse me?" Emily rolled her eyes and Stefan stifled the urge to inform her of the lack of grace in the action. It was an action that he had long ago broken Nikolas of, and had re-emerged when he decided to play the role of commoner. "You can't tell Nikolas who he can marry."

"I am his guardian."

"You were his guardian. Nikolas is of age now, Stefan." When had she begun to address him by his given name? He couldn't remember when Mr. Cassadine had become Stefan. "He can make his own decisions. I'm not all that bad, ya know." She stomped her foot, and again, Stefan wanted to give her lessons in etiquette and eloquence. "You just don't like me because I'm a Quartermaine."

"I don't approve of you because you are not right for my nephew."

"How am I not right? Because I'm not royalty? Well, there's not all that much of that left, ya know. And-- Don't I give enough of myself for him? Haven't I let him go and save his family at times when I needed him? Haven't I done my best not to interfere? Okay, so I've told him to do things that you didn't like, but—He's not a baby. He's a grown man, and he can make his own decisions. And I'm a grown woman and I can make my decisions. My decision is to stay with Nikolas until he doesn't have to be in this hospital, anymore."

Stefan started to speak, but she wasn't the one who held any weight here. If he could convince Nikolas to end this engagement, he wouldn't need to speak to Emily. Stefan turned back to his nephew and Nikolas was stirring. His head lolled from side to side and he grimaced in pain.

"Where are the imbeciles in this hospital who call themselves doctors?" Stefan leaned forward and put a hand to Nikolas's head. He lightly brushed the hair back from his forehead. Sweat made the lower layers cling to his skin, and Stefan had to pick each hair up individually to get it all out of his face. "All of this hair. You need a haircut."

Stefan shook his head and let out a heavy sigh. There was a towel beside the bed, and he picked it up. It was nearly dry, and he had to regrettably leave Nikolas's bedside to dampen the towel again. When he came back, Emily was in his chair. He looked down at her angrily and she just shrugged. She didn't even look at him. She just knew that he was there.

"I am not leaving him." She held on to Nikolas's hand tightly. She finally turned to Stefan as he began to walk around to the other side of the bed. "Would you leave him like this? Could you look at him like this and leave him?"

"The answer to that should be evident."

"Then you should know why I'm not leaving him, either." Emily sighed. "Just let me stay here with him. I don't know who else is sick. I don't know if my family is alright, and yeah, I should probably check on them. But, I always think about them. Right now, I'm selfish. I have to be with Nikolas. I have to be sure that he's okay, and unless something drastic happens, or security comes in and drags me out of here kicking and screaming, I can't leave him."

Her concern and fire were touching, as was her selflessness. She said that she was being selfish, but in the end, she was doing the same thing that Stefan was doing. She was exposing herself to a potentially deadly, unknown virus so that Nikolas might not be alone.

Stefan turned away from her and gently laid the towel against Nikolas's head. Already, he had bulled the hospital into getting Nikolas a room. In comparison, dampening is forehead was an easy feat to accomplish. A feat not so easy, however, would come when either Nikolas woke up, or Emily finally left the room to find out how many others were in the hospital, and just who they were.

Nikolas was sick. He was in pain. He could die. He needed no more burdens laid upon him, but Stefan knew that his nephew would take them on if he were to find out that his half-sister, Lesley Lu Spencer, had been the second person admitted with this virus.

Stefan shook his head and sighed. He knew that the Spencers would be the downfall of Nikolas. That Lesley Lu was the second admitted and her father, Luke, was the first identified case, Patient Zero, he believe he had been called-- The Spencers were pulling Nikolas down with them, and should his nephew die, Luke Spencer would find out that the Cassadine family truly never relinquished vendettas. They merely let them simmer and intensify.


	8. Second Wave

AJ Quartermaine was wobbly on his feet. Not something his family wasn't used to seeing, but this time, he could say for a fact that it wasn't because he was drunk. He hadn't had a drink in years, and he damn sure wasn't about to start doing it now. Not if he could help it. Hell, he wouldn't even take Nyquil because of the alcohol content in the nighttime sniffling, sneezing, coughing, achy, stuffy head so you can rest medicine. That should have showed them that he was trying to stay as sober as possible.

But as Ned Ashton looked at him, AJ knew his cousin was wondering. Had he felt his head, Ned would have seen that AJ had a fever. Inside, AJ felt so cold that he knew his skin had to be burning up. But Ned looked at him like he was drunk, or he was going through withdrawals. Not that this didn't feel a lot like going through detox, but it wasn't the same thing. He was sick, and he needed someone to drive him to the hospital.

AJ wondered where Emily was. She would have taken him. She would have taken a good look at him, felt his forehead, and known that he wasn't doing well. She would have known that he needed medical treatment, that he wasn't drunk. She was the only person in the whole damn family that didn't automatically look at him and think liquor. She gave him the benefit of the doubt, even when she shouldn't have. Now, though, was a time when he needed that benefit.

"I'm not—" AJ's words faltered as he tried to push himself up from the chair. He wobbled, thought that he would fall, but managed to keep himself standing on shaky legs. "I'm not drunk, Ned. I'm sick."

"I've heard that before." Ned shook his head. "You always have a reason—"

"You know what? I don't need you." He started to cross the floor, his arms out from his body in an attempt at balance. "I can get myself there."

"What are you gonna do? Drive? Get in another accident?"

"Ten years! Christ, Ned, it's been ten years. Jason doesn't even hate me for it, but you—" AJ shook his head. "Forget it. I'll just call somebody." His voice started to fade. His sight was blurry, his vision double. He tried to focus on the table with the phone, trying to force the double objects into one. "I'll just call—"

AJ made it two more steps, his arm stretched in front of him before he fell. Halfway down, his body turned. The back of his head hit the hard edge of the sofa before he collapsed into an unconscious heap onto the floor.

* * *

Kristina Davis-Corinthos wasn't very old, but she was a smart girl. She knew that something was wrong when she went into the living room. Mommy was sleeping, but she never slept that well. If Kristina nudged her, if Molly cried, then Mommy was up on her feet, running around until she knew exactly what was wrong and where she was needed. Yet, when Kristina called out to her, she didn't move. When Kristina pushed her, she didn't make a sound.

Daddy Ric needed to come fix Mommy.

But, Daddy Ric wasn't there. Or at least, she didn't think he was there. When she called out for him, he didn't answer. Wouldn't he have known if something were wrong with Mommy? He wouldn't just leave with Mommy sick like that. Would he?

Kristina climbed down from the couch, and made it to the edge before she stepped on something soft and squishy. She looked down and her eyes widened. "Daddy Ric?" She went down to her knees and pushed at him. He made a little noise, at least, but nothing that sounded like him waking up. It wasn't like when he said, "Ten more minutes, Kristina," when she tried to wake him up in the morning. "Daddy Ric?"

Kristina went back to the sofa and tried to wake up Mommy again. "Daddy Ric won't wake up, Mommy." She pushed her again. "Mommy, wake up. Something's wrong with Daddy Ric."

Mommy didn't move. Daddy Ric didn't move. And Molly was crying. Kristina did the only thing that she knew to do. She did what Mommy had taught her to do, in case she ever needed help fast.

Kristina ran to the phone and dialed 911. She had asked once if she should call Daddy, but Mommy told her 911 was faster. So 911, it was.

"911 Emergency."

"Mommy's sick. Daddy's sick. They won't wake up and Molly's crying."

"Okay, calm down. Can you tell me your name?"

"I'm Kristina Davis-Corinthos. Mommy and Daddy Ric won't wake up. Please, help us. Please? 'Cause Molly's crying, and I know how to call help for Mommy and Daddy Ric. I don't know what to do for Molly."

* * *

Dillon Quartermaine was tired, and he thought if he just laid down for a minute, he would be fine. Of course, there was no laying down during an apparent epidemic. Besides, there was nowhere to lay in the hospital coffee shop. He could have put his head on the table, but that would just make his neck hurt. If he were going to take a nap, then he was taking a real nap. Stretched out, curled under a blanket.

Yeah, a blanket sounded nice. He wondered if they had a spare in the hospital somewhere. Probably not, since the whole of the city seemed to be sick. But, then again, that wasn't necessarily right. Georgie wasn't sick. Lucas wasn't sick. Maxie was fine. He was fine. Wasn't he?

No, Dillon had to say that he was probably as sick as everybody else. Or at least on his way there. He knew he wasn't as sick as LuLu had been, but there were probably others who were just as bad. And probably some who weren't as bad, too. Luke wasn't that bad. In fact, Luke was getting better. Maybe the body just built up a natural immunity if you waited long enough. So, maybe, if Dillon waited long enough, he'd build up that immunity, too.

"Diego's not answering his phone." Georgie Jones ran a hand through her head and groaned. "Does that mean that he's fine? Or does that mean that he's sick and he's in the hospital, too? Ya know, if he's sick, then they'd have taken all his stuff, right? So, it's entirely possible that he could be sick right now, and we don't even know it."

"I'm sure Diego's fine." Dillon's voice sounded weak in his own ears, but maybe that was just his mind playing with him. Georgie didn't seem to notice anything.

"But, what if he isn't? I'm thinking Brook would be really pissed at us if we let him get sick when she was out of town and didn't even know it. I mean, what if he passed out somewhere? He could be as bad as LuLu and we wouldn't even know it."

"I'm sure he's fine." Dillon started to stand up and stumbled. "Fine," he muttered.

His body started to slouch and someone grabbed him from behind. Couldn't have been Georgie. She was looking at him with a sudden fear in her eyes. Her cell phone had dropped to the floor, and the battery popped off. Dillon looked up behind him and saw Lucas. "You don't look good, man."

Georgie touched his head, then pulled her hand back quickly. "Oh my God, Dillon, you're burning up. You've got it, too. We have to find a doctor. We—"

"No, I'm not sick. I'm fine, Georgie. Don't worry. I'm—" And Dillon fell to the floor.


	9. Incoming Part 3

"What happened to his head?"

"He hit a chair when he fell. It was cushioned, but he hit the ends. They're classic chairs, and I think he hit the metal beads on the end."

"It doesn't look too bad, but if he's got what everyone else has, I don't think I can medicate him for it. We're still looking for some kind of antibiotic that fights this, but so far, we haven't gotten anything. AJ? AJ, can you hear me?"

Robin was back in town? Did AJ really avoid the hospital so much that he didn't realize that? Or maybe he just avoided all people associated with his brother. That could have been it. If he could do it, AJ would stay away from everybody that had ever thought Jason was better him.

But, was that really Robin? He couldn't remember a time that she actually said those words. Maybe his memory was failing. If he were strong enough to do so, he would have laughed at that. Maybe he had hit his head hard enough that he was going to lose all his memories, too. Wouldn't it be great to get a chance to start all over?

"AJ, if you can hear me, squeeze my hand."

He could do that, at least. His fingers wrapped around Robin's hand, and he gave a small squeeze. It was all that he could muster. His strength wasn't what it used to be. Golden Gloves boxer. He couldn't box a kitten right now and come up on top.

"We need to get him into a room. We're moving everybody as quickly as we can, but not everybody's going to get a room. I would say it could wait, but with the head injury, I want him away from areas where it could do more damage. If he wakes up and tries to get out of bed, he could do some serious damage to himself."

Who was she talking to? God, AJ wished he could actually say something. He was stuck in a state between consciousness and darkness. He could move, he could hear, but he couldn't open his eyes. He couldn't verbally respond.

"First things first, we need to get his head bandaged. Then we need to get the fever down. He should have been brought in before he got this bad. Weren't there any signs before he dropped?"

"Signs of what? That he wasn't just sleeping off a binge? It's AJ, Robin. We can't always be sure what's wrong with him."

"Way to go, Ned. Ya know, you could learn a few things. You could learn how to be a little more compassionate and maybe a little more forgiving. Have some faith in somebody once in a while. It would do you good."

Ned. Yeah, like that was ever going to happen. Ned's faith in AJ had run out long ago, and he couldn't really blame him. At some point, AJ had lost faith in himself. When he first woke up feeling like death warmed over, he'd had to think hard as to what he'd been doing the night before. A full ten minutes had passed before he was able to convince himself that he hadn't been out drinking. That there was actually something wrong with him. So, no, he couldn't blame Ned for not having faith in him. He just wished that, one time, one of them would have switched positions. That even if Ned had no faith in him, he could have faith in Ned.

"Nothing—" AJ cleared his throat. His eyes slowly started to open. He was laying down and, looking sideways, he could see the hospital streaking past him. "Nothing to drink," he muttered.

"I know, AJ." The gurney stopped and Robin looked around. She flagged someone over, and the two studied a clipboard. "Are you sure?" The nurse nodded and Robin groaned. "Damn, I was hoping that there was room."

"What?" Ned actually sounded like he might have given a damn. "Is he going to have to wait in the hall?"

"Worse." She sighed and looked down at AJ. "I'm really sorry about this, but the only room left open right now… is with Sonny."

* * *

"My girls—" Alexis clawed at Stefan's arms frantically. "Where are my girls? I have to get to my girls."

"Natasha—" Stefan took in a deep breath and held it. "Alexis, your daughters are fine."

"No, you don't understand. He'll take them. Molly's not even his, but he'll take her, too. He'll take them while I'm in the hospital, and I'll never see them again. Stefan, you have to get me to them. You have to get me to my girls."

Alexis's eyes were wide. Her chest rose and fell in a furious pace. She couldn't think straight. All of her warning signals were going off. There was more wrong than a simple illness. Sonny-- He had to be behind this. He had done something so he could get her girls. He'd done the same thing to Ric because he knew Ric wouldn't let him have them. Sonny—

"Where's Ric? Where's my husband?" Alexis was pushed back to the bed, but still she struggled. "What did you do with him, Stefan? You don't like him, I know that, but you couldn't…" Alexis's eyes started to droop and her body was going limp. She'd expended too much energy. She was tired, now, but still worried. "You can't hurt him."

"I did nothing to Lansing," he said crisply. "You should be more grateful, Alexis. You could have been waiting in the hallway for hours had I not stepped in."

"The hallway?" Her head rolled to the side. She was in a room? Wasn't she just in the hallway? Just in the ambulance, actually? "Where am I?"

"You're in a room with Nikolas."

"Nikolas—" Alexis tried to push herself up, but Stefan held her down. "What's wrong with Nikolas?"

"The same thing that's wrong with you, and no, the doctors do not know what it is. I've heard theories, ideas as I tried to get more information. Something about a chimpanzee."

Alexis groaned. Luke and his stupid chimp. Sure, it was nice of him to bring something back for his daughter, but couldn't he be like other fathers? Couldn't he bring her jewelry or island trinkets? Of course not. That would have been too much like normal, and far be it for Alexis to call Luke Spencer anything anywhere near normal.

"Stefan, my girls…"

"They are safe. Kristina called for an ambulance. You've taught her well, Natasha." He lightly grazed her cheek with the back of his hand. "Now, do not put her efforts to waste. Lie still before you make yourself worse."

Stefan's touch was too soft. He could be gentle with those he deemed worthy, but so often, Alexis had found herself on the opposite side. So many times she'd unwittingly put her trust in others and she'd seen the harsh, unforgiving side of her brother. She couldn't remember what terms they were last on, but even if they were good, would he have been that gentle? Maybe. Possibly. She didn't know.

"It's bad, isn't it?" Alexis groaned. "You had us put in the same room, so you could be with either of us if one of us died."

"No one said anything about death. I simply didn't want either of you to be alone, and I prefer not to split my time. I also prefer my family to be treated with the utmost respect. I find nothing respectful about ill people being left in the hallways of this hospital."

"So you say, but I don't buy it." Alexis groaned and rolled her head to the side. She could see Nikolas now, and he looked at lot worse than she felt. "How long has he been sick?"

"Hours." Stefan released her to turn towards Nikolas. "Emily brought him here. Tell me what you knew of this engagement."

"Stefan, I don't think now is the time." Grunting, Alexis pushed herself up in the bed. "There are more important things than who your nephew fell in love with."

"So you say."

"I do, and I realize that we're having this conversation because you're worried. You can deny it, but you think we're going to die." Watching Nikolas huddling beneath the covers, sweat drenching his face, Alexis couldn't say that she thought differently. "And you have us here because you want to be there when it happens."

"You're delirious. Nikolas was this way, calling for his mother." Stefan turned to her and sighed. "Sleep, Alexis. There will be plenty of time for discussion later."

"So, you say." She rolled her eyes and groaned. "If you really want me to rest, find Ric, and find my daughters. Have a doctor tell me they're okay, then I'll rest. Until then, don't bet your life on it."


	10. Emily

"Are you serious!" Even as she stalked down the hallway, arms swinging at her sides and ending in tightly clenched fists, Emily could keep the conversation going. "I can't believe you'd let them do this to him, Elizabeth. I mean, yeah, I realize that you're worried about Cameron and Alcazar, but—with him!"

"Em, I'm sorry! I wasn't even there." Elizabeth tried her best to keep up with Emily. It probably would have been easier if she weren't so tired. "God, running back and forth between Luis and Cameron-- If I could get them in the same room, I probably would, but with Diego sick, too, Lorenzo made sure that his son and his brother were put in the same room."

"But—Sonny!" Emily had always done her best to tolerate Sonny. In the beginning, when Jason first had his accident, she was even nice to him. After all, he'd taken Jason in when he couldn't stand to be around the majority of the family. When Jason needed someone, Sonny had been there for him. But that was before everything went to hell in a handbasket.

Maybe she could have forgiven him if he'd at least played fair. Of course, she didn't know why she had expected him to do that. She'd heard how bad he was for so long, but for Jason's sake, she'd believed the best of him. If Jason trusted him, then she guessed she could trust him, too. But after the meat locker—

A lot of time had passed since Sonny Corinthos had locked AJ away in a meat locker with an ultimatum. Sign the papers and give me Michael. Or drink the vodka, end up drunk and I get him anyway. That was pretty much the way the cookie crumbled, and AJ wouldn't have taken the drink. Emily knew he'd do anything to stop himself from becoming the worst that he could be.

It still angered her that she was the only one who believed him. Jason siding against him was one thing. Emily was used to that, and as much as she tried to convince him that AJ wasn't as bad as Carly and Sonny wanted him to believe, there was no getting through to him. She was lucky that they'd managed to be somewhat civil in the past year or so, and even that was just because of her. But the rest of the family—

They didn't believe him. They just figured that he was drunk again. He'd gone on another bender, and this time, it had lost him his son. No, it had lost Alan and Monica their grandson. It had lost Edward his new heir. Ned wasn't good enough. AJ wasn't good enough. He always had to have someone younger and stronger, someone else who he could train to be exactly like him. It almost made Emily glad that Michael wasn't living with them. But it was an almost that was pretty damn far away from certain.

"Em, I know it's not the best place for him, but would you rather he be out in the hallway?"

"Yes! No! I don't know!" She sighed and came to a halt. Emily swept to the side and hit the wall with a thud. Her head dipped, and long dark hair fell into her face. She swept it back and looked at Elizabeth, hands still at the sides of her head. "I wish these rooms were bigger, ya know? Then I could have Nikolas and AJ in the same room where I could look after 'em. If they were bigger, I could talk Stefan into it, as long as Alexis and Nikolas were together, but—I can't because the rooms aren't big enough."

"I know, honey." Elizabeth put a gentle hand on her shoulder. Emily looked at her with a pout, and a slight bit of amazement. With everything she had going on right now, she was still able to comfort. She could take the time out to come and tell her personally about AJ and take her to him. "If there were anywhere else we could have put him, we would have. Ric was already put in with Dillon, so that was out. The other rooms were filling up so fast—" She shook her head. "This was the only spot open when he came in, and Robin knew it wouldn't be easy."

"Easy." Emily snorted a harsh laugh. "Easy is me in the same room with Stefan Cassadine compared to this." She pushed herself from the wall and continued down the hall. "There's no telling what's going on in that room."

"They're both so sick, Em, they probably don't have the strength to fight."

"Oh, you don't know AJ." Emily sighed. "Nobody knows AJ but me, I think sometimes. He's stronger than a lot of people give him credit for. He's strong enough not to drink, and I know that sometimes he does it for me, but he also does it for himself. Drinking got him into all of this, and he doesn't want it to go that way again."

Emily knew they were drawing nearer to the room because she heard voices. They were strained, but still loud enough to be a commotion. It was like listening to two hoarse people go at it full tilt, which is probably exactly what was going on.

She walked quicker, leaving Elizabeth behind to reach the room. There were so many people that she needed to see, but none sooner than AJ. Emily had visited briefly with Cameron and, at one point, had even peeked into the room of Alcazars on Elizabeth's request. They were sick, but they were alive, which was a good enough report for the moment. She still had yet to see Sam and her brother, Danny, and hadn't been back to the room yet to check in on Nikolas. But, right now, even he would have to wait until she got to AJ.

"Stop it!" Emily shouted loud enough to hurt her throat as she stormed into the room. "Stop it, right now!" She turned to Sonny and glared. "You have no right to say anything to him!"

"Emily—"

"No! I give you the benefit of the doubt because of Jason. He trusts you, though I don't know why, and you helped him when he needed it. Fine. But you've also done a lot to hurt him. You've hurt my entire family, and you have no right to yell at AJ!"

"Emily, please." AJ's voice was weak and as she turned to him, Emily gasped and her hands went to her mouth. His face was pale, his lips gray and eyes sunken in, red around the edges. His face and arms were covered in a thin sheen of sweat. "Not now, okay? Just—let it go."

Her hands dropped slowly. "Oh, AJ." She rushed to him and grabbed his hand. "I'm so sorry I wasn't there. I heard about what happened, and believe me, when I see Ned, he's gonna hear about it. I'm so tired of his garbage."

"Not like I haven't given him reason to be like that."

"He should still be a little bit smarter than this." His hand was burning up, just like Nikolas had been, and she wondered if they were on the same level with the sickness or if AJ might have been worse. At least she'd been there to take Nikolas to the hospital. AJ had been forced to wait. "And you shouldn't have to be in here with him. Not alone. But, Nikolas is here, and I can't just leave him."

Emily bit her lip and shook her head. This was too hard. AJ and Nikolas were on different floors, and with all the people in the halls, it would take at least five to ten minutes to get between them at any time. She couldn't stay with both of them, but she didn't want to leave either of them alone. Granted, Nikolas wasn't alone, but she wasn't with him, so it amounted to the same thing to her.

"Go back to Nikolas," AJ told her. "I'll be fine."

"Don't play the martyr on my account, AJ. You need somebody with you. Somebody to protect you from him."

"I started it," he said weakly. "I think I started it. I was halluncinating. Back in that meat locker—" AJ shook his head. "I thought he was standing there, and I yelled, but I started it."

"Don't you dare blame yourself!" She whirled around. "And don't you stay anything to him, again! You're both stuck in this room, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let you hurt him, anymore. You've taken his son, isn't that enough?"

"I didn't take Michael. Carly gave him to me."

"Yeah, and now she's taking him away from you. It's the only smart thing that woman has done in her life. I swear to God, Sonny, if I hear that you've done anything to AJ, I'll make you pay. Do you hear me? I'll make you pay, and you'll see just how much Cassadine has rubbed off on me. And trust me, that's a side of me that you never EVER want to see."


	11. Oxycontin

"We have a problem." Elizabeth didn't have time to respond before Dr. Patrick Drake was dragging her down the hallway. On a normal day, the hall would have been familiar. Considering that it was the one she'd travelled so often in the past six hours, volleying between the NICU and Luis's room, it was even more familiar.

Elizabeth was practically thrown into the room, and was only inches away from Carly when she stopped the forward momentum. Any other time, the two would find something to argue about instantly. Right now, they apparently had something in common. They had people they cared about in this hospital, growing increasingly worse.

"He's getting worse, and it's not the fever." Patrick turned towards Luis, his back to Diego. "His test results are coming up increasingly erratic, and we can't find his brother. Carly doesn't know what the problem would be. Do you know what could be causing this?"

"Me?" She looked up at him confused. "I'm not a doctor. I'm not even a scientist. I'm just a nurse."

"You're also the closest person to him, next to his brother."

Elizabeth shook her head. "Where is Lorenzo?" She turned to Carly and asked again, "Where did Lorenzo go? Wouldn't he know what's wrong?"

"I sent him to get something to eat. He was driving me crazy with the pacing." Carly sighed and Elizabeth thought the woman had to have been extremely worried for her to be giving up so much information. The two were usually very curt with one another. A dislike stemming from affections over Jason turned into bitter resistence over the Alcazar that she had less use for than the other. "I know as little about Luis Alcazar as I can survive without knowing. You're his girlfriend. If anybody other than Lorenzo knows, then you would."

Elizabeth hated that the ball was in her court. The doctors didn't know anything. Lorenzo wasn't around. But, maybe if she waited long enough, Lorenzo would return and she would be out of the hot seat. There was so much medical history at the front of her mind from Cameron, that she didn't know if there were room for anything regarding Luis.

Though, she was grateful that he was unconscious. She'd spent so much time travelling the halls because she could only handle so much of his conversation. His lucid times were so laden with coughs and shivers that her heart broke for him. She could barely stand to watch it. His delusional moments were filled with confessions of love that no one in this room needed to hear. Especially considering that they were all things he probably wouldn't have said were it not for his fever.

And yet, according to Patrick, this had nothing to do with his fever. But, something was making him delusional. Something was also pushing him further and further to the top of the list of worse cases. For all she knew, there wasn't time to wait for Lorenzo to return.

Elizabeth racked her brain, and she thought that she was thinking too hard. It should have been on the tip of her tongue. She was just confident enough to believe that Luis had told her everything she would ever need to know about his medical situation. He'd told her even more when she agreed to leave Cameron with him. She hadn't asked, but he just seemed to know that she needed to know more than she'd already been told. So… what had he told her?

"His leg," she muttered. "His leg and his back." Elizabeth shook her head and tried to think of exactly what he was on, and how often he was taking it. Had she not seen him in the throes of agony before, she probably would have told him to stop taking them. That it was all in his mind.

But, she knew better than that. Elizabeth had once seen his x-rays, transferred into General Hospital from his doctors in Venezuela. They would need a copy in case he ever came in for anything, and he had to have medical records to get his prescriptions. His entire back had been broken, then pieced back together with bone and metal plates. His right leg had been shattered and put back together with metal bolts. The broken bones combined with nerve damage made it a sure bet that he would be on pain medication for the rest of his life.

But, what the hell was the name of the medication?

"Dammit," she muttered, looking around the room. "Where are his clothes?" She looked at Carly and was almost frantic as she shouted, "Where are his clothes!"

Carly looked at her shocked, and across the room, Diego started to stir. Carly moved to his side, taking his hand and trying to hush him back to sleep. That was probably best for him, anyway. At least asleep, most of the patients weren't feeling the intense ache of their bodies. But, that wasn't helping anything, and Elizabeth thought she'd have to yell again until Carly said, "They took them. Robin's father had everyone's clothes burned who were actually sick. Why? What's in his clothes?"

"His pills!" She whirled back towards Luis. He was starting to move, but he was still unconscious. Elizabeth stepped up to the side of the bed and gently took his hand in hers. "What was it, Luis, huh? I should know this, because it's common and strong and—" She stopped and her body went rigid. "Oxycontin!"

She turned to see Patrick looking at her with pause, then move to scribble something on his chart. "I need to know everything you know, Nurse Webber. What's the dosage? How many does he take, and how many would he have had today?"

"I…" She shook her head. "He always has them with him, but if they burned his clothes, they're gone. I don't know how much he's had, but he eats 'em like candy sometimes." Patrick looked at her in disappointment, and she didn't blame him. She was a nurse, and she should have known better. "I know, alright? But, you didn't see him. His body was shattered, and he's not an addict. He doesn't take them because he's addicted. He takes them because he really needs them. He gets them from the hospital, for crying out loud!"

"Wait, he gets his prescriptions here?"

"Yeah, he sees Dr. Jones, because he's also got a lot of nerve damage. Tony should have it on file."

"This is just great." Patrick rolled his eyes. "Even if we could find that damn chimp, we have drug interaction issues with Alcazar. We've been giving him medicine to bring down the fever, and all it's doing is making him worse. Until we flush his system, we can't treat him at all."

And enter Lorenzo. "What do you mean, flush his system? What have you done to my brother that now can't be treated?"

"Mr. Alcazar…"

"Lorenzo, it's the pills. For his back and legs." Elizabeth took in a deep breath and shook her head. "Nobody thought to say anything about what he was already on, and I know I should have. I'm a nurse, I should know these things. But, with Cameron so sick, I just—God, I'm horrible!"

"Neither of us were thinking very clearly." Lorenzo stepped into the center of the room and looked between his son and his brother. His eyes passed the door, and his features took on a more stern expression. He turned towards Carly and only when she started to move did Elizabeth see Jason standing in the doorway. Carly left the room reluctantly, and when neither she nor Jason were in the doorway, Lorenzo said, "What will happen to my brother if you flush his system?"

"He'll be in a lot of pain, Mr. Alcazar. I won't lie to you. It's going to hurt like hell. It'll be similar to withdrawal, but the pain will be the actual pain he was taking the pills for originally, instead of his body getting used to the drugs not being there."

"And if you don't do it?"

"He'll probably be among the first to die." Did he have to be so blunt about it? Elizabeth wanted to slap him, but Luis was starting to wake up, and he held her hand too tightly. Not tight enough that she couldn't get free, but enough to know that he was aware of her presence. If she left him now, he'd wake up for sure, and he'd be in even more pain. "If we don't get the Oxycontin out of his system, we can't treat the fever. We're working on some kind of cure for the encephalitis, but until we get it, we can only treat the fever. I won't do that with the Oxycontin in his system. It's not doing anything."

Lorenzo looked to Elizabeth with… what was it? Pleading? Did he not want to make the decision, either? She couldn't blame him. She didn't want to be the cause for his pain, either. But, at the same time, neither did she want to have to stand over his final grave and know that she could have made the decision that would have saved his life.

"Lorenzo—"

"Elizabeth, Luis has kept a lot from me since his return. We're brothers. We're twins. But, he's been angry with me. He hasn't shown his pain to me as much as he might have to you. How severe is the pain?"

"Lorenzo…" She sighed. "It's bad, and he doesn't think I see it, but I do. God, I should have noticed that he didn't have his cane when he came in, but he was leaning on one of your guards. His leg is weak. But, if we don't get the Oxycontin out of his system…"

"He'll die."

"Yeah." Elizabeth let out a shaky breath and turned back to Luis. "I don't want to hurt you," she said softly, "but I can't afford not to." She turned to Patrick and asked, "Once the fever's down, he can go back on it, right? Or at least you can give him something that won't interfere with the treatment?"

"Yes, but there's no telling when the fever will break, and anything we give him won't be as strong. He'll still be in pain."

"But, he'll be alive." Elizabeth took in another deep breath and let it pass her lips slowly. She looked up at Lorenzo and he only gave her a nod. Great, he was going to make her say it, too. Another deep breath and she said, "Fine. Flush his system." She turned back to Luis, lifted his hand to her lips and lightly kissed his knuckles before whispering, "I'm so sorry, Luis. And I'm even more sorry that I can't stay here with you through the entire thing. But believe me, if Cameron weren't here, there's nowhere else that I'd be. But, right now… I just can't stay."


	12. Carly

"Jas?" Carly tried to remember the last time she'd seen him looking so lost. So hurt. So out of control. The only thing she could think of was the hardest memory she had of the two of them together. The night he came into Sonny's penthouse and found her walking downstairs in Sonny's shirt.

She shook her head. No, there was one more recent, and again, it was something she wished had never happened. Jason standing outside of the OR, staring blankly into the room through the small square of glass. Sonny walking up to him. Jason holding him back, telling him that he didn't want to go in there. He didn't want to see it.

Again, Carly shook her head. This wasn't the time to think about any of that, because as bad as things were, they would get better. Jason wouldn't have to see anyone else die. He wouldn't have to lose anyone else that he loved, be it to death or another man.

She hated admitting that Jason loved Sam McCall. Honestly, Carly had never thought that anyone else was deserving of Jason. He was probably the only place where he found herself to be truly selfish. Sure, she could go on with her life. She could go from Sonny to Lorenzo, and all around the world, but Jason had to stay hers and hers alone. Sharing wasn't something she did well, and she damn sure wasn't going to do it with Jason.

But, she couldn't look at him and not let him have his love. Sure, she could say that if he had just not loved her like she told him to, he wouldn't be going through this, but not even Carly could be that cruel. No matter how much she disliked Sam, Jason loved her, and this had to be killing him.

"How, um, how is she?"

Jason blinked at her, like he didn't even hear her. His hand held Sam's tightly, gripping her fingers. The young woman was asleep, but maybe she felt him there. Maybe he knew that he was by her side. "She, um…" Jason shook his head. "She keeps going in and out. Not always lucid. Remembering Lila. She, um, she got worse, though, when they brought Danny in."

Carly turned with surprise on her face. Had she really been so focused on Jason that she didn't realize that she'd walked right past Danny? Sure enough, Sam's brother was sleeping feverishly in the bed, huddled down beneath the blankets. He reminded her of how Diego looked, and she turned back to Jason.

"What are you doing here? Michael. Morgan…"

"They're fine," she told him with a sigh. "They're at Sonny's with Leticia."

"You shouldn't be here, Carly. You could get sick, and the boys don't need that."

"Jason, I can't go home." Her brow furrowed. "Haven't you heard what's going on?" She stopped, then sighed. "Probably not. When you're focused, everything else just happens. And you're focused on Sam, so you wouldn't know."

"Carly, what's going on? You're babbling."

"I'm not babbling." Carly sighed. "Okay, I'm babbling." She took in a deep breath, and when her body started to sag with her shoulders, she realized just how tired she really was. "The hospital is shut down, Jas," she said as she forced herself upright. "Half the town is sick, and anybody in here is stuck here. I've been here with Lorenzo, and I know you don't like him, but his brother and his son are sick. Yeah, I know what you think, no big loss, but it's not fair for you to start lecturing me."

"Carly, complain later, explain now."

She sighed. "AJ's sick, and you're not gonna like this, but Sonny's sick, too. He's in a room with AJ and your sister—"

"Emily's sick?"

"No! God, no, I'd have told you if—" She shook her head. "She's here because she was with Nikolas Cassadine when he got sick, and now she's spending all of her time jumping between arguing with his uncle and yelling at Sonny. I went by there once, and I swear, the only reason I didn't hit her was because you wouldn't like it. But, I swear, Jason, if she yells at me one more time…"

"Just…" Jason stopped. What did he want her to do? Stay away from her? Not likely with as much as she was in the room with Sonny. But, then again, how often had she really been to his room? Though she was still on the fence where Lorenzo were concerned, Carly thought that maybe this told her just how important he was to her. For this undying love she thought she had for Sonny, she could leave him to his illness and the doctors. Lorenzo needed her, even if he wouldn't admit it, and she had to help him. "What are they doing about it? I can't get anything concrete out of anyone, but I know you, Carly. You've been listening."

Of course, she'd been listening. Though it wasn't often that she stayed silent, Carly had learned that when she did, she could find out a lot more. "This started with a monkey." She shrugged. "I guess Luke brought it for his daughter, and she was one of the first ones sick. They're calling either her or Luke Patient Zero, but I don't know which one. Thing is, they can't find this monkey."

"We had that chimp." Jason lightened his grip on Sam's hand as he sighed and slouched. "Dammit. Sam found it and brought it home, because she didn't want it to get hurt. We were right there and Michael—Are you sure Michael's alright? He was near it."

"He's fine. Leticia's been calling with reports, and can you believe that means I have to go near Alexis and the rest of her crackpot family? She and Ric are sick, too, and she's in a room with Nikolas, so I have to go and tell her that the girls are okay because Leticia has Molly and Kristina, too. I swear, sometimes, I'm too nice for my own good."

"Carly. The point?"

"What? Oh yeah." She shrugged. "The chimp is missing. They had it in a cage, and now, it's running around the hospital, somewhere. And you know the PCPD. They can barely keep riots from busting out with the people quarantined here. Can you imagine what they're like trying to chase down a monkey? I mean, come on. They'll never figure this one out. That thing probably isn't even in the hospital, anyway. Hell, I could find a way to sneak out of here if I wanted, so I'm sure—"

Carly stopped talking when she realized that she was talking to herself. Or at least, talking to an empty chair. As she turned, she saw that Jason was still in the room, but on his way out the door. When the hell had he moved? "Jason?"

"I just saw it." He looked to Danny, then back at Sammy. "We've gotta get that chimp."

Jason was out the door and Carly stared at him bewildered. She ran after him, wondering what in the hell they were doing. Chasing a chimp through the hospital? She should have been with Lorenzo. Luis was whimpering in his sleep, sweating and writhing with pain when he was awake, and it was all tearing Lorenzo apart. Elizabeth, too, and it annoyed her that, yet again, she found herself feeling sympathetic towards someone she wouldn't have given the time of day to hours before. But, it had to be hard, making that kind of decision, and while Carly didn't always like someone, she could sympathize and empathize. She would never be Elizabeth's friend, but she could give her that much.

But, there she was, behind Jason, running after him. Because she would do anything for Jason. She owed him too much. She had hurt him too often to not help him with this. Besides, this way, she was helping Lorenzo, too. She could only sit in the room with him for so long, doing nothing. Carly was a lot of things, but she wasn't useless, and that's what she felt like sitting there. As though she were just one more burden for Lorenzo, one more thing for him to worry about.

She had to do something, as did Jason, and that's what they were doing. They were chasing a chimpanzee through the halls of General Hospital for the ones they loved. Loved? Yes, as much as she'd told herself that she'd always loved Sonny and always would, she loved Lorenzo. Loved him enough to look like a maniac through the halls. She loved Jason and she loved Lorenzo, and for their betterment, she would do this. Besides, as crazy as it was, the chase was kind of fun. It was always good to find a little fun when everything was heavy. And right then, everything was heavier than one woman could take.


	13. Selfish

"He's getting worse." Emily looked at Stefan, then to Alexis. "And so is she." She shook her head and sighed. "Everybody in this entire freaking hospital is getting worse, and nothing is being done about it. And you-- you get to just stay here, and you don't have to run around and look after people and-- You just keep staring at me!"

Screaming didn't get her anywhere, Emily knew that, but it felt good. She was able to release some of the tension that was threatening to rip her apart at the seams. She was filled with fear, dread, trepidation, remorse, despair—Every word that she had ever read written in any poem was within her right at that moment, and they all wanted a way out.

"I'm not watching someone else die." Emily straightened her back and strode forward, heading towards the door. "I will not stand here and watch anyone else die! I've seen it! I felt it! Haven't I been through enough already!"

Emily stormed out of the room, and was just beside the door when she collapsed against the wall. She knew she sounded horribly selfish, and had expected Stefan to say something to her, to accuse her of being an insolent child or any number of the things he'd called her in recent years. But, no, he'd just stood there and watched it all with a blank expression. No surprise. No fear. No anger. Just that same callous and cold Cassadine masked that, at one time, Nikolas had also been perfect at maintaining.

He probably blamed that on her, too. Most of the recent Cassadine family ills were somehow her fault, but maybe this time, she didn't mind the blame. She didn't mind being the reason that Nikolas had melted his heart. It allowed her entrance, it allowed her to be more than the little girl that followed him around. So yeah, she'd take the blame for that. But not the rest of it, because that was just ridiculous. How could one lowly girl be the cause of a family nearly going broke? And anyway, he should have been glad she was there, at all. She was the one that forced Nikolas to pay more attention to his family's businesses than to her.

And that fact made it all the more evident that the selfishness she'd shown inside the room was not something she usually possessed. She had been living every little girl's dream. She was actually dating a prince. A true, blue blood, honest to God PRINCE was in love with her, and what did she do? She told him to stop showering her with attention and do what needed to be done. His family's well-being, the Cassadine standing and legacy, had to be more important than her.

And yet, there she was, being selfish at a time when she was supposed to be selfless. This wasn't happening to Nikolas or Alexis or AJ or anyone else that she knew in that hospital. This was happening to her. It was stressing _her_ out. It was making _her _tired.

Emily felt horrible that there was that much selfishness within her. She was ashamed that the good heart that Paige raised her to hold was becoming dark and withered. Her mom was a good person, and she raised Emily to be a good person. Why was she being so selfish when there were so many others that were worse off than her?

And suddenly, Emily's mind floated to other people. To Sam and Danny forced to weather this storm without Jason while he and Carly chased down that chimp. To poor Elizabeth who still managed to stand on her feet even though her child and the man she loved were both ill, yet she still saw every single patient that she was assigned to, and some that she wasn't. Molly and Kristina were without their parents, and poor Kristina had been the one to find them unconscious. Ric and Alexis didn't know if they'd be able to raise their children. And Nikolas could die.

Emily shook her head, trying to chase the thoughts away, but all she did was bring back the selfishness. Why did life have to be so hard on her? She watched her mother die. She watched her brother taken away from his family. She watched her brother's soon get taken away from him. People had died. People had destroyed relationships. She had destroyed relationships.

Emily had Nikolas because she'd hurt Zander, and she would never forgive herself for that. Thinking about Zander, her part in his death, everything that she had done to reach them to the point they currently dwelled in—It all came rushing back and compounded her guilt as she tottered between selfishness and self-hating disgust.

"Emily." She looked up confused, not because someone was talking to her, but because of _who_ was talking to her. She watched as Stefan squatted in front of her, hands dangling between his knees. Stefan Cassadine? Squatting? She had to be delusional. "Nikolas is awake and asking for you."

"I'm surprised you didn't tell him that I went away." She rolled her eyes and groaned. "That's what you want, isn't it? For me to leave so Nikolas can find somone worthy? And what the hell is worth to you, anyway, huh? I mean, honestly? I don't think anybody is ever gonna be good enough for him as far as you're concerned, so why even bother. What's the point, right? Just tell Nikolas that I got the point, that I'm a flake, whatever. Just tell him I'm gone."

Stefan took in a shallow breath and his body slightly drooped. "The only thing I want right now is for my sister and my nephew to survive this debacle." For a second, Emily thought she saw his mask drop. She thought that maybe she saw an actual ounce of fear, but quickly changed her mind. Stefan Cassadine? Afraid? The hell, you say. "As for concocting a story of your disappearance, I fear that Nikolas would not believe me. My nephew believes that you love him, and that you would stay by his side forever."

"I would! Why can't you see that!" Emily pushed herself up the wall so fast that Stefan was rocked backwards. He was able to catch himself before falling completely down, then stood up. He straightened his suit, the perfection of grace and social upbringing, and he just looked at her. That damned Cassadine mask! "Why can't you understand that I love him? That I've loved him for so long, and now that I finally have him, I won't just give him up! Why can't you just let us be in love!"

"Because love has a nasty habit of destroyine one's heart. Make no mistake, Ms. Quartermaine—" When had they gone back to a formal association? No, wait… When had they even become informal to go back to formalities? "…I love my nephew, and I have made it my duty in life to protect him from everything."

"You can't protect Nikolas from a broken heart, especially one that won't be broken. I'm not marrying him to divorce him. I'm marrying him to live the rest of our lives together. To make each other happy. I'm marrying him because I love him, and that's why he's marrying me."

"Thus, am I to take it, that any actions I might take to put an end to your engagement will only serve to alienate me from Nikolas once again?"

"Yeah." Emily shrugged. "And I know that neither of you want that. You hide behind your silly little Cassadine iron mask, but it has to hurt when Nikolas turns against you. And I've seen Nikolas cry when he thought I wasn't looking because of some loss he thinks he's had. You're more than his uncle. For all intents and purposes, you are Nikolas's father as much as Alan is my father. So, please, don't hurt either of you, anymore. Just—let it go."

Stefan watched her stoically, and if she didn't know any better, Emily would swear that he were a zombie. He didn't move. He didn't blink. He didn't even seem to be breathing. He only barely came to life when he nodded minutely and said, "Nikolas has been asking for you."

Emily opened her mouth, started to speak, then shook her head. No point in it. Why screw up the one thing that wasn't coming back to bite her in the ass? This time, she took her own selfishness with a little pride, turned around, and walked back into the room.


	14. Tracy Q

"Georgie..." Dillon Quartermaine groaned and rolled onto his side. His mother turned her eyes on the young girl standing in the middle of the room and glared. It was bad enough that the sympathetic, pathetic adopted waif kept wandering in and out of the room to check on Lansing. It was even worse that Cassadine kept coming in to gauge Lansing's nearness to death's door. Hell, it was bad enouh that Dillon was even forced to share a hospital room at all. But, if that damned Georgie Jones didn't stop her incessant whimpering, Tracy Quartermaine was going to explode.

"Don't you have somewhere else to be? Isn't that wretched Alcazar boy in this hospital somewhere? Go annoy his father and leave me a lone."

Georgie looked to Tracy and sighed. "I'm not bothering you. I'm not even talking to you unless you talk to me first. I'm here for Dillon."

"Well, Dillon doesn't need you. He has his mother, and that's all he needs."

Tracy took Dillon's hand and clutched it tightly. His skin was burning, and there was nothing anyone seemed able to do that would bring his fever down. He grew worse and worse, and his groaning moans mingled with Lansing's. The Quartermaines were a family of doctors, and not a single one knew what they were doing? None of them could find a way to save her baby boy?

Tracy had been careless with her son, she knew that. She had dumped him on the family's doorstep. She had found him countless fathers that were unworthy. She'd done things to control his life that he had found to be unbearable and disgusting. But, he was still her son. He was still her little boy, and she loved him.

It was just in her own way that she loved him. Tracy didn't know how to be nurturing. She left all of those saccharine displays of affection for people who were better suited for them. People like Monica, who would cry at the drop of a hat. Or people like her mother—

Lila Quartermaine had been a gem. People called her the glue that held the family together, but she was more than that. She was the only person who had ever seemed to give a damn about Tracy. And yet, even her own mother had banished her from the house in the past. Tracy had been raised to do the very same things that her brother had done, but she was born a girl and Alan got the distinction of being Edward's boy. So, while he and all the rest of those idiot men were praised for the things they did, Tracy was banished and called a witch. Was it any wonder that she didn't know how to "properly" love her son?

"Oh, now he needs you. Why is it always that you don't really care what he does half the time, but when it's something like this, oh, he's your son and nobody else can be around him. I love him, too, ya know."

Tracy groaned and turned towards Georgie. "I really don't care about anything you have to say to me. If you're going to stand there, stand silently and get out of my hair."

This was all Luke Spencer's fault. Luke and that daughter of his. Who brought a child a chimp, anyway? Didn't he know that girls liked jewels? But, no, not Luke. He had to be that cool father, instead of a respectable one. He had to bring in the newest things, the so-called hippest things. The man was a complete and utter idiot.

And yet, he was her husband. Why was she still married to him? It couldn't have just been because of the money. Tracy had plenty of opportunities to get him out of her life and would have never had to give him a penny. She could have been rid of him and that petulant girl that made home a living hell. As if it weren't already a wretched place to live. She had to make it even worse. But, still, she was married to him, and would stay that way. Why?

Tracy sighed. Because Luke Spencer made life fun. He was a pain in the ass. He made her head throb with all of his schemes and his random escapades into nowhere. He spent her money as though he actually deserved any of it. Tracy would definitely say different about that. Yet, still, life was an adventure with him. As much as Tracy had been married in her lifetime, she couldn't say that she had ever married anyone quite like Luke. Businessmen. Mob bosses. Hell, at one time, Tracy had even been a mob boss herself. But, none of that had ever been as exciting and thrilling as being Mrs. Luke Spencer.

"I could probably use this as a way to get rid of him, though," she muttered. A sound behind her made her turn. Georgie stared at her in shock and Tracy rolled her eyes. "Oh, shut up."

Luke had caused this epidemic. It would be a very plausible reason to want a divorce. And if she guilted him enough with Dillon's illness, she could probably get him to just sign the damn papers and get the hell out of her life for good. But, she was still back to the same point she'd just been considering two seconds prior. In all of its disgusting glory, she still enjoyed being married to Luke Spencer.

"I'm going for some air. As much air as one could possibly get when being held hostage in a hospital full of imbeciles." She looked at Georgie and sighed. "If you want to be useful, hold his hand. But, if he wakes up, you let him know that his mother has been here. If I come back in this room to find that you've further poisoned my son against me, you'll wish that you had never met me, little girl."

Tracy stormed from the room, heels clicking against the floor. If Georgie expected her to pull a Cassadine, then she was sadly mistaken. Tracy had overheard Emily talking to Ric, telling him that Cassadine allowed her to stay in the room with Nikolas without much grief. Well, Cassadines were a different breed, anyway. They obviously didn't have what it takes to stand firm in their beliefs. Tracy may not have been able to forcibly remove Georgie from the room, seeing as how Alan and Monica liked her, but she could make her stay there very uncomfortable. She wasn't going to have Dillon without a fight, and that was that.

"Mother?" Tracy shook her head, cleared her vision.

"Ned." Tracy sighed. Were her eldest son more of a compassionate soul where she were concerned, Tracy might have hugged him. As it were… "So, you've finally decided to make your way towards your brother. How loving of you."

"I realize that this is how you deal, but don't, Mother. Now is not the time."

"Then, when is the time, Ned? Dillon has been here for hours, and I haven't seen you in his room once. I've seen Cassadine more than I've seen you, and let me tell you, that was not my idea of fun."

Ned sighed. "I thought that maybe you'd like time alone with Dillon."

"Alone! Ha!" Tracy rolled her eyes. "With the Princess of Perfection standing over me and that man in the bed across the room—You'd think that Alan or Monica would be able to get him into a private room!"

"There are no private rooms. There are too many sick people, and they're going where they can. The only person in a private room is Luke, and that's only because he's getting better and they don't know why." Tracy's head popped up. As much as she'd been thinking about Luke, she had yet to actually see him. "They're running tests and don't want to run the chance that he might get sick again."

"So, Luke managed to survive. Of course. He's Luke." She rolled her eyes. "Figures that he'd start this whole mess and then be the last one standing. The only one standing! Where is he! I should go and—" She shook her head. "No. I'm not leaving this hallway. Luke just has to suffer on his own, because I'm not leaving that girl in the room with Dillon for too long."

"Georgie loves Dillon, Mother."

"And I don't? I am really tired of hearing about their young love and how wonderful they are together. So, if that's all you have to say, you can turn right back down that hall and go somewhere else. I'm not listening to it!"

And she didn't. Tracy didn't stick her fingers in her ears. She didn't start making loud noises to drown him out. That was uncouth and childish. Tracy may have been brash and careless at times, but she was most definitely not childish. Instead, she merely turned around and went back to the room. Because Georgie Jones had been left alone with her son for far too long.


	15. AJ

AJ felt a little better. Nowhere near healthy, but far enough away from the gates of Hell that he could get up and leave the room. He couldn't stay there any longer. He couldn't argue with Sonny anymore. He couldn't take the man screaming at him to shut up every time he deliriously called out his son's name. So, he left the room, teetering along, holding on to his IV stand, And halfway down the hall was when he realized that maybe, he would have been better off just staying in his room.

"Michael?" AJ blinked as rapidly as his muscles would allow. He had to have been hallucinating again. Granted, he did feel somewhat better, but there was no way that Michael was really in the hallway. AJ shook his head. "I should go back to bed?"

AJ closed his eyes and when he reopened them, the boy was still there. The flourescent lights of the hospital made his hair look orange, like something out of a Crayola box. His freckles were heavy, and his eyes were wide. He obviously didn't expect to see AJ anymore than AJ expected to see him.

"Does your mother know that you're here? Where's Leticia?" AJ groaned. Great way to talk to a mirage. "Okay!" AJ yelled, "I get it! I screwed up, and this is my punishment. Just—Stop torturing me!"

"AJ?" Michael blinked at him, and as he walked towards him, he said, "You're sick, too?"

AJ groaned. With the luck he had in life, this really was Michael. The kid never did know how to stay where he was told. Poor Leticia was probably having a fit because she couldn't find him. It was late enough that he'd probably been put to bed, and decided to sneak out. Leticia probably didn't know he was gone, at all. And there he was, standing in the middle of an epidemic—Probably looking for Sonny.

"I don't think you should be out of bed."

"You don't care," he groaned. "Nobody but Emily cares." AJ moved to the side, propping himself up against the wall. His grip on the IV stand loosened and he felt himself slowly starting to fall. His back slid against the wall until he reached the floor. He was tired, and aching, and he probably should have been in the bed. But, he couldn't take another moment in that room with him. Maybe he could just stay out in the hallway. There were others who didn't have a bed. One of them could have his bed. It would be no magnanimous gesture, no moment of selflessness. He really didn't care how many people were in the hallway. AJ just didn't want to be anywhere near Sonny.

"I was looking for my dad. He's sick, and he's here somewhere."

Definitely Carly's son. The boy either didn't realize that his words hurt, or he didn't care. With everything Sonny and Carly had told Michael about him, he probably didn't care if he hurt his feelings. Just like Carly never cared. But, damn. The kid could have given some thought to the fact that his real father was sick and he didn't want to hear anything about the man that had stolen him away.

"That way," he said with a groan. AJ's head rolled against the wall. "The room I came out of."

"You—What did you do to him!" Of course, he would think that he'd done something. That's what the poison did. "Why were you in his room?"

"Because they put me there." AJ sighed. There wasn't even a point in being mad at Michael. He was just a kid. He'd been so thoroughly brainwashed that there was no way that he'd see things any other way. "The only room, and they put me there. I'm just—" AJ felt himself starting to fall to the side. "I'm just gonna lay here for a minute."

He slid down the wall and his face touched the floor. The tile was cold and soothing against his burning skin. They had told him that his fever was slowly going down, but AJ couldn't feel it. To him, he was just getting hotter. He curled himself as far as he could go. There was a shaking noise, a clattering, and he wanted to look. The IV stand was falling on him, but he couldn't move to put it back upright. He couldn't move out of his little ball.

Then, Michael was there, holding the stand up. If he let it go, it would fall on him. If he stood and held it, he wouldn't get to see Sonny. AJ knew which one he wanted him to choose. He didn't know which Michael would choose, though.

"AJ? You've, um, you gotta get up, okay? You can't just lay on the floor."

"Yeah, I can." He murmurred and rubbed his face against the floor. "So much better here," he groaned. He shivered, his teeth clattered. "Never meant to hurt you. Never meant to hurt Carly. Just wanted my son." He moaned. "Could've kept you, but I couldn't drink it—I couldn't—"

"Oh my God! AJ, what—" And then, she was there. The one person that AJ always knew he could count on. Emily was kneeling beside him, holding his face, smoothing back his hair. "Oh, AJ, what are you doing out of bed? And what are you doing here?" She was looking at Michael, now, but AJ couldn't tell if it were concern or anger on her face. "What are you doing here, Michael?"

"Um, I, uh…" He bit his bottom lip. "Leticia put us to bed, and when she went to check on Molly, I snuck out. I had to see my dad."

"That man is not—" She bit her tongue, stopped the words from coming out. She usually tried not to be so forceful with Michael, but now—It looked to AJ like it hurt her to not say anything. "What happened to AJ?"

"He just—He fell. He was out in the hall, and he just, well, he didn't really fall. He sorta sat down and laid down, and the IV almost fell on him. I held it, but, he won't get up. And he's mumbling about something." Michael shrugged. "He's just babbling."

"He's sick, and he has to get back to his room. And as soon as I get him settled back in, you are going back home. How'd you even get in the hospital?"

Michael shrugged again. "I just snuck in. There are all sorts of ways to get in this hospital. Didn't Mom and Jason use one to get out? And I already know that they're out somewhere looking for that chimp. She called Leticia to tell her and I was listening in."

"You're learning a lot of bad habits, Michael." She sighed, then with a grunt, began to hoist AJ up from the floor. She didn't ask for help, and she didn't tell Michael to go get help. All by herself, the girl picked him up from the floor. The amount of strength his little sister had never ceased to amaze AJ.

Once he was on his feet, she looked to him with disapproval. It was that same face that Grandmother had always given him. How could she possibly have Grandmother's face when she wasn't an actual Quartermaine? It must have been practice. But, she also had Grandmother's heart. Grandmother had always loved him. Emily always loved him.

"I'm putting you back to bed, and you are not allowed to get out of it, again. You hear me, AJ? You can not get up and go walking around just because you wanted to."

"I just needed a break from him," he said in a weak voice. "I would have gone back."

"He was gonna just lay on the floor." Michael looked up at Emily and asked, "Is he, um, is he gonna be alright?"

Emily sighed. "Michael—Honestly, I don't know. I'm not going to lie to you, because too many people have done that. AJ is very sick, just like a lot of other people. And anything he says—He promised that he wouldn't try to trick you or anything a long time ago, and he's not. He just doesn't have that thing in the rest of us that stops us from saying things that hurt."

"Why would what he says hurt? Would it hurt me?"

"No, Michael, it hurts him. It hurts him because he loves you so much, and all you've ever been taught is to hate him." Emily sighed, and she sounded tired, too. What had she been doing to be so tired? "No matter what anyone says, Michael, AJ's a good man, and he is your father. Nothing is going to change either of those facts. Now, just—Come on, so I can get him back in bed, then get you back home."

And that was Emily, the only member of the AJ Quartermaine fan club. She would always take his side. She would always try to help him. And she would always believe the best of him. He sighed and groaned as she pulled him back towards the room, Michael walking behind them and pushing the IV stand. Why couldn't she have been there sooner? Maybe then, so much would have been different. So much better.


	16. Exhausted

Elizabeth was tired, and it was no wonder. From Luis to Cameron, to every single patient that she could reach-- Elizabeth had been running, and she couldn't remember the last time she had a break. The closest she could even consider to a break was sitting beside a writhing Lorenzo or a whimpering Cameron. At least then, she was off her feet. At least then, she was able to catch her breath long enough to truly realize just how deep the pile of shit was that she was standing in.

Luis was at the screaming stage, now. Even when she wasn't in his room, she knew about it. She may not have been able to hear him, but she knew. Someone was always ready, willing, and able to let her know how much pain he was in. The only place she was safe from an Alcazar report was when she was with Cameron. Everyone seemed to realize that this was a time when she should be left alone. So, being with Cameron gave her a small reprieve from the constant reports of how bad Luis was doing.

Elizabeth wasn't cruel or heartless, though. It was just her way of protecting herself. Every time someone told her that he was screaming out her name, begging for mercy, or asking God to just kill him and get it over with, Elizabeth's stomach twisted in knots. She was the reason for this. Oh sure, she could go back to the past and blame any number of people for his pain. Brenda. Alexis. Even Lorenzo for keeping him alive when he probably should have died. But right now, in these moments, at this time, Elizabeth was the one that gave the go ahead to take him off of the Oxycontin. Elizabeth was the reason he was in pain.

With Cameron, though, she was safe. Safe from Luis's pain, that is. With her son, there was a whole other kind of pain. The pain of helplessness. She could do nothing to ease his pain. If she could, she would have taken his fever and his aches and taken it all on herself. The worst thing a parent could go through was losing a child, and with that possibility floating through the halls of General Hospital, she couldn't help but feel herself already starting to mourn him.

Elizabeth shook herself and stood up straight. She walked to Cameron's bedside and held his hand loosely. They were keeping him asleep as much as possible, anything to stop the whimpering and crying. Tears started to drip from Elizabeth's eyes and she wiped them away, only for them to be replaced by new tears. There was nothing she could do for him, and there was no reason for her to feel guilty over that. Yet, stil, she thought she wasn't doing enough for him. She was spreading her time too thin. Her baby was weak and possibly dying, and she didn't spend every single minute with him.

"Elizabeth?" She turned as Bobbie came into the room. "We need to run some more tests on him."

"And I need to leave." Again, Elizabeth wiped her eyes. That was the hardest, she thought. She was a nurse, so she understood, but at the same time, she was a parent. She wanted to be in there with him. She wanted to be on his case, but Cameron and Luis seemed to be the only patients that weren't on her list of rounds. She was too close to them, they told her, and while she may have understood, she still didn't like it. She wasn't on Diego's case, either, or Nikolas. Again, too close.

"Just for a little while." Bobbie gently touched her arm and smiled softly at her. "We think we may have something that will work."

Elizabeth's eyes widened with hope, then her brow furrowed with confusion. She already knew about the chimpanzee. They found the original strain in him, and they could use his antibodies to make a serum that could possibly work. But, the chimp was gone. Carly and Jason were off running around, chasing it down around town, but she hadn't heard word that they had returned. She hoped that amidst all of the reports on Luis's health that she was given, she would also get news about the return of the chimp that could save everyone's life.

"Are they back?" Elizabeth asked. "Jason and Carly?"

Bobbie shook her head. "No, honey, they're not. But, Luke—" Bobbie paused, and Elizabeth suddenly felt like a horrible person. She was so involved in her own angst that she hadn't even taken the time to see how this was affecting Bobbie. Her brother and her neice had both been brought in as the first cases, and the last Elizabeth checked, LuLu was getting worse. And no one had heard anything at all about Lucky. That could have only been a good thing, though, because it meant that he wasn't in the hospital. She and Lucky may not have become the perfect couple that everyone expected of them, but she still cared.

"Luke's getting better," Bobbie continued. "It looks like Luke has built up some kind of immunity to the encephalitis, and Patrick and Robert think that they can make a serum out of it. It might not be as potent as what we get from the chimp, but they think it'll put a dent in it."

Elizabeth blinked and tried to process everything she'd been told. A possible cure? After more than twelve hours of people being near death, there might finally be something to help? Wringing her hands, Elizabeth asked, "Who gets the first dose, Bobbie?" She looked past her to Cameron. "Please tell me these tests are to make sure that he can handle this."

Bobbie gave her that matronly smile that always seemed to make her feel better. It was hard to believe any of the truth of Bobbie's life before she became a nurse when she smiled like that. "LuLu and Cameron will probably get the first doses. Of the older patients, LuLu's the worst off, but Cameron's the worst of the children. There aren't many children who caught it, thank God, but there are still a few."

Elizabeth's body sagged with relief. "Then, I'll go," she said quickly. "I don't want to cause him to have to wait any longer, ya know? I'll just go and—I don't know. I'm supposed to be resting, but I have to see Luis. He—He'll get it, too, right?" Always an afterthought. She wondered if that bothered him. That she never thought of him first. He said it didn't, but how could it not? "Bobbie, I know what people think of him. I know that he's not liked here, but he's a good man. He brought Cameron to me, even though he was already sick himself. I don't want him to— I don't want that to happen to him because he's not what some would call an upstanding citizen."

"I have nothing to do with the choosing, Liz. Patrick is making the choices. He's the most impartial, and I really believe that he's just looking at the files of people. He's not even looking at the names. This is based solely on who is the worst."

Elizabeth sighed. "Thank you. I'm gonna—I'm gonna go, now. I'll be in Luis's room. I need to tell Lorenzo that he'll be fine, so you can find me there. If not, I'll come back before I go on rounds, again. I just—"

Elizabeth stopped talking and ran out of the room. She ripped past people, her heart filled with hope that finally, everyone would be better. By the time she reached the Alcazar room, her chest was hurting and her lungs ached. She leaned against the wall and tried to catch her breath. She was tired, and if she had a fever, she would have worried that she was coming down with it, too. But, she was just tired. She was overworked. She needed to stop and take a moment. Too bad that wasn't an option.

As she entered the room, Tony Jones was coming out. Had he already told Lorenzo about the serum? Or was he just there to check on Luis? Tony was his doctor, after all, and at some point, it only made sense that he would stop in to check on him.

Elizabeth walked into the room and looked around. Diego was sitting up, obviously still feverish, but he was conscious and right then, he wasn't hallucinating. Luis was asleep, blissfully, and the only sounds from him were faint moans. Lorenzo sat in a chair between the two, and he looked as though he had just sat down. His shirt was pulled free from his pants and the top buttons were open. His head volleyed back and forth, between his brother and his son.

"Lorenzo?" He looked up at her, slowly starting to stand. Elizabeth leaned against the door. "Did Tony tell you?"

"Tell me what?" He walked towards her. "He only told me that they found something stronger to give him for the pain. Unfortunately, he can only have it for short periods of time, otherwise, it will interact with any medication for the fever." His brow furrowed in concern. "Elizabeth, you don't look well."

"I'm fine," she waved him off. "There's a cure, or at least a temporary one." She shook her head and slid along the wall until she was fully into the room. She sagged against the wall and closed her eyes for a second. She took a breath. She tried to build up her strength. Her eyes reopened and she said, "Luke has antibodies against this thing. Bobbie told me that LuLu and Cameron will be the first to get it. They're the worst, but Patrick's making the choices on who else gets it. And that's even if it works. Patrick was concerned about Luis, so there's a very good chance that he'll get the serum in the second round."

"Elizabeth, you don't look well at all. You should sit down."

Lorenzo walked closer to her and she stood up straight. "Aren't you even listening to me? They can help them! Luis will get better soon, and Diego has to be on the list somewhere! They'll be saved!"

"That's wonderful news, Elizabeth, but right now, they are still sick, and you still bad." He touched her face and sighed. "You're not feverish. Do you have any other symptoms?"

"I don't have symptoms of anything, alright? I'm just tired. I'm working a never-ending shift, and I'm excited. I'm just tired." She took a step forward and the room started to spin. She turned towards Luis's bed just as he opened his eyes. "I'm just tired," she muttered, right before she collapsed against Lorenzo and fell into darkness.


	17. Luis

Sick, pained, and barely able to see straight, Luis Alcazar was climbing over the railing of the bed. Or at least he was trying to climb out of the bed. His muscles were weak and sore. Spasms tore through his back and his legs. Even if his brother were right there to hold him down on the bed, he wouldn't have been able to fight against him. He was just too weak.

"Elizabeth!" The name sounded louder in his head than he knew it actually was coming from his lips. "Elizabeth!"

"Luis, lay down." Lorenzo looked up to his brother, but he didn't move. He was holding Elizabeth, keeping her from dropping to the floor. "It's not the same illness. She has no fever. She's exhausted, Luis."

"Why are you just sitting there? Get her some help, Lorenzo." Luis propped his head against the railing and wondered when they had even raised them. The last time he was awake and aware, his bed had been as open as Diego's. His nephew could have rolled out of the bed if he wanted. Luis couldn't even sit up.

"Where did these come from?" Luis gripped the bars as tightly as he could, which wasn't very tightly at all. "When did they lock me in this prison?"

"It's not a prison, Luis." Lorenzo rolled his eyes and carefully picked Elizabeth up from the floor. He sat her gently in the chair in the middle of the room, then went to the door. "You were convulsing with your pain. They're there to make sure you don't fall out of bed."

"It's a prison," he groaned. "I've been in plenty to know what they feel like. And what are you doing, _hermano_? Why are you at the door instead of getting help? Would you just let the woman I love die?"

"She's not going to die, Luis. You're exaggerating the situation, as you often tend to do since your miraculous reanimation from the dead." Lorenzo stepped out of the door, just one foot, then quickly came back inside. He rushed to the side of Luis's bed and pushed the call button. "There is no staff in the hallway, and she needs to lie down."

"She'll die with the rest of us." Luis rolled onto his back and stared up at the ceiling. "I've doomed her, Lorenzo. My love has doomed her."

"Again, you're exaggerating, Luis. There is nothing wrong with her that a little rest won't repair. And you should have heard the excitement in her voice. Excitement that not just her son would soon get a cure, but that you would as well. And Diego, too. Excited that not just her family, but our family would survive this epidemic. So, don't start talking to me of curses and doom. You're delirious, again."

With his talk of delirium, Luis believed that it was his brother who was delirious. What was this talk of a cure? The doctors here didn't know what they were doing. They didn't know how to fix any of them, and they would die together. But, Elizabeth—His precious Elizabeth—She deserved better. Luis had done enough in his life that he deserved the death that coming back to Port Charles would bring him, but Cameron and Elizabeth deserved better. They deserved their lives.

She looked so peaceful, so at ease. The same as she did when he watched her sleep at night. The nights where he would get up in the night to care for Cameron if he awoke from a nightmare so as not to disturb that perfect peacefulness and beauty. Every other time that Luis had seen her since coming into the hospital, she looked haggard and weary. Her little body was delicate and her heart, as much love and fire as it contained, could only do so much before it told her to stop. To care for herself.

God willing, and Elizabeth allowing, Luis would take her away from all of this. He would give her the life that she deserved. She had told him about her painting, had even drawn a few pictures for him. She was talented, and even if she didn't want to pursue painting professionally, she deserved the opportunity to have it as a hobby. She deserved the chance to have a hobby, at all.

"She could be Mrs. Alcazar," he muttered. Luis reached out weakly through the bars, his fingers stretching and wiggling towards her. "She would make a lovely Mrs. Alcazar, Lorenzo. And she could care for her son and not worry about everyone else in the world. She would never have to go through this again."

"Luis, you're babbling. You don't babble."

"I am not babbling, Lorenzo. I'm musing." He let out a heavy breath. "Lower the bars, Lorenzo. Lower the bars and bring her to me. Let me hold her." He looked up at his brother. "She sleeps better when I hold her."

"I'm almost positive that she needs more than sleep, Luis. She's probably dehydrated. She needs treatment from the doctors."

"Then, they can come and treat her here. Right now, Lorenzo, she needs rest. You said so yourself. Her body is weak and tired from all that she has done here today. Please, Lorenzo, I haven't asked you for anything since coming to Port Charles. In the last year, I've not asked anything of you. If not for me, brother, then do it for her. Lower these bars and let her rest."

Lorenzo took in a deep breath that rose his shoulders, then slowly let his body fall. He looked back and forth from Luis to Elizabeth. Would he have done the same thing if Diego asked that his girlfriend be put in bed with him? If his girlfriend were even there? Probably not, but Luis didn't care. What he did with Diego was his business. All that mattered was that he brought Elizabeth to him.

Finally, with a look of apprehension, Lorenzo put down one side of the bars on Luis's bed. He went to the chair and lifted Elizabeth into his arms. She moaned slightly and curled against him. Then, as though she knew it was not Luis that held her so closely, she turned away. Lorenzo laid her on the bed, and Luis moved over until his back was crushed against the bars. Lorenzo rose the other rack of bars again, then stood back, obviously still unsure about this decision.

Luis realized that, for the first time, his body seemed to ache less. That could have been attributed to the drugs that he had been given, but he preferred to believe that it was because of Elizabeth. It was because she was with him, the beautiful angel that had saved his heart. She was no saving his body, as well. Lorenzo had told him that it was her decision, in the end, to allow the doctors to cleanse his system of the Oxycontin, and she may have felt guilty about his pain. And in his agony, he had mistakenly blamed her for this when she was out of the room. Said that she was torturing him worse than Brenda had ever done. But lying with her beside him, Luis knew the truth. She had saved him, and he could not hate her for that.

"I love you," he whispered as he weakly brushed her hair out of her face, pushing it back behind her ear. "And if you allow me, I will make your life the best that it can be. If we all survive this, I'll bring you into my family, and maybe we can have one of our own. I love you, and forgive me, Elizabeth, for all of your pain. I'd take it, along with mine, if I could. I love you." Luis kissed her forehead and said once more, "I love you."

And Elizabeth unconsciously curled against him, moving into his warmth and love.

Sam was aware, for the first time in quite sometime. She didn't know how long, but it felt like a long time. And the first thing she noted was that Jason wasn't at her side. Selfishly, she wanted him to be there, holding her hand through it all. Logically, she knew he wasn't good at that sort of thing.

That didn't stop her from wishing it however.


	18. Crash

Sam was aware, for the first time in quite sometime. She didn't know how long, but it felt like a long time. And the first thing she noted was that Jason wasn't at her side. Selfishly, she wanted him to be there, holding her hand through it all. Logically, she knew he wasn't good at that sort of thing.

That didn't stop her from wishing it however.

Usually, she understood the kind of man she was in love with. He was a man of action. He was a hero, waiting for his chance to run to the rescue. Something like this, though—What could he really have done? Holding her hand was doing nothing but causing him pain, and she had never wanted to do that. Jason was supposed to be happy with her. That was her entire defense of their relationship when Carly put her nose in their business. Sitting, holding her hand and waiting for her to die—That wasn't making Jason happy.

And now, he was off somewhere with Carly. In her delirium, Sam had screamed that this was all a trick. Carly had lured Jason away so she could brainwash him against her. He would come back, and he'd have decided that he wasn't in love with her, anymore. Maybe even that he'd never been in love with her. Carly would know that would be enough to make Sam give up. If Jason hated her, why keep fighting? It was all a plot by Carly to get rid of her once and for all.

But, lucid, Sam knew better. She knew that after all the work that she'd done to help Carly get her children back, the women had an understanding. Something that had begun to grow when Sam's baby died. She knew that, while the two would never be friends, Carly had at least accepted her in Jason's life. She wasn't trying to hurt her. She was just trying to help, because Carly was just like Jason. She didn't do well sitting and waiting.

Across the room, Danny groaned. Sam pushed herself from the bed, knowing that she should have stayed there. Her body was weak, and she could barely stand. But, that was her brother, and he was only sick because of her. If he hadn't come to visit, then he would have never gotten sick. So, even though she had to crawl half of the way there, she went to him.

Danny's fever was higher than Sam's, and though she hadn't been aware very often, Sam couldn't remember a time when Danny had been nearly as lucid as she currently found herself to be. He kept muttering in his sleep and whining. When he was awake, he was crying. Poor Danny. His life was bad enough before she took him away from their mother, away from that basement. But, once she'd taken him—How could she have possibly helped him?

"I'm here, Danny." She touched his hand lightly, and though her own body was probably burning up, Danny's skin felt hotter. She forced herself to stay in contact with him, though. Forced herself to squeeze his hand until his eyes opened. "I'm right here, and you're gonna be fine."

"I'm really sick, Sam." Danny pouted and sweat rolled down his face. "I don't feel good at all."

"I know, honey, but you'll get better." She took a damp cloth from the side of the bed and dabbed at his forehead. Her arms were weak and they ached with the motion, but she kept a hard, steady face. Danny was worried enough. She remembered him crying when he and Jason first found her. She remembered him begging her not to die. The least she could do for him was to make sure he didn't have to do that again. She could be strong for him. "We're gonna get better, and then we'll take a vacation."

"Will Jason come with us? Jason and the baby?"

Sam took in a sharp breath. She bit her bottom lip. Her hand stopped moving momentarily on his forehead. Tears stung her eyes, but she wouldn't let them fall. She forced them back, then forced her arm back into motion. "There is no baby, Danny, remember? Lila…"

Danny's eyes went wide. "Oh, Sam, I'm sorry! I'm so so sorry!" He tried to sit up, but wasn't strong enough to lift his body. He fell back to the bed with a heavy sigh. "I forget sometimes. I'm so hot, I forget. I'm so stupid!"

"No! Don't you ever say that!" Danny tried to hit himself and Sam held his hands down. "Don't you ever let me hear you say that again, you understand me? You're not stupid, Danny."

"I'm stupid, 'cause I'm broken, and nobody can fix it."

"Danny, baby, please, you're not broken." Tears fell from her eyes, and the only reason she was able to hold his hands down to the bed was because he was even weaker than her. "Danny, it's just the fever. I forget sometimes, too. You remember? I yelled at Jason because he wouldn't bring her to me."

"I don't remember."

"I did, Danny. And then, I thought she was there, laying with me. It's just the sickness, Danny, okay? You're not stupid, and I don't want you ever saying that again."

Danny's eyelashes fluttered. His mouth opened, and Sam thought he was going to say something else. Instead, though, he let his eyes fall shut and his head rolled to the side. "Danny?" She gripped his shoulders as tightly as she could and shook him. "Danny, wake up. Danny?"

Sam's vision was blurred, and she couldn't tell if his chest was rising and falling. She put her hand to his face, but she couldn't feel breath. They were both too hot, and all she got was the heat that radiated from their bodies. "No…" She shook her head and then she shook him. "Danny, don't you die on me! Somebody help me!" She reached to the side and pressed the alert button. She ran to the door and hoarsely shouted, "Somebody help!"

Sam ran back to Danny's side, and had her hand poised to slap him when his head came back to her. His eyes fluttered open and Sam sagged with relief. She almost fell to the floor, and had to pull herself back up using the bed. "Danny…"

"Sam, can we go to the beach?" His voice was weak and wistful. "Jason said he'd teach me how to swim."

Smiling and biting her lip, Sam nodded. "Yeah, Danny," she told him. "We can go to the beach. Jason can teach you to swim. You just gotta stay with me, though, okay?"

"I don't wanna go back there, Sam. They're nice, but I wanna stay with you. Will Jason let me stay with you?"

His voice was getting weaker, and Sam grabbed the button again. She squeezed it, holding it down until someone came up behind her. "I'll talk to Jason, Danny. I don't want you to leave me, Danny."

"I don't—wanna—" He took in heaping breaths, and before she knew it, Sam was being jerked back. She shook her head as Patrick Drake ran up to Danny and started checking him. He yelled for someone to grab a crash cart and Sam hadn't even known he was in the room.

She was fighting, but she couldn't get free. The hands that held her were dainty, but she wasn't strong enough to fight. Her head whipped and she screamed. Between the shouts, she heard Emily's voice. "Sam, let them help him. Please, get back in the bed."

"Danny!" She reached for him and tried to get to him. "Danny!" Her body sagged as the crash cart was brought in and charged. Patrick did compressions. Bobbie had the air pumping into Danny's lungs.

Someone brought in a machine, EKG? EEG? Sam couldn't remember which was which, what the letters stood for. They put the patches on his chest, then Patrick grabbed the paddles. "Clear!" He shocked him and Sam screamed again. "Danny, no! Danny, please! Don't leave me!"

They charged the paddles again. Patrick shocked. Emily pulled Sam to the bed. And Sam wished Jason were there. If she had to lose her brother, the last family she had left, she didn't want to be alone. Even with Emily there holding her, sitting in the bed with her, hugging her tightly, she was alone. Without Danny, without Jason, it didn't matter who else was there. Sam would be alone.

"Clear!" And Patrick shocked Danny again.


	19. Death Looms

"Things will be better soon." Alexis perched on the bed, lightly stroking Ric's hair, doing her best to ignore the grunts and groans of annoyance coming from Tracy. "You'll be out of this room. We won't have to be anywhere near her. It'll be a good thing."

Ric looked up at her and grinned, albeit weakly. He reached up towards her face, fingers wiggling in the air before his arm dropped back. "You look better."

"I'm a Cassadine. We've got amazing immune systems." In truth, she felt like hell. Her body ached, her eyes burned, her chest was sore. But, they told her that her fever was going down. Her fever was reducing enough that she could get out of the bed and walk around. She could convince Stefan to let her go see her husband. She just had to go with supervision, which accounted for the aggravated girl standing in the doorway. "How are you doing?"

"Well, I won't be dancing any time soon, but I've been worse." Ric coughed hard enough to bring his body up off the bed. Alexis weakly grabbed his shoulders and eased him back to the bed. "Okay, so I haven't been worse, but I'm still alive. That counts for something, right?"

"Yeah," she whispered, stroking his hair again, "that counts for something."

Considering that people were already starting to die, being alive counted for a lot. Alexis had heard the screaming all the way down the hallway. She hadn't been able to tell who was so frantic, but she found out when Emily made it back to the room. Sam's brother had gone into cardiac arrest, but he'd been one of the lucky ones. Patrick Drake had the magic paddles, and he managed to get him back. He also shot him full of a serum that would hopefully cure him. Danny was one of the lucky ones.

Various others had already succumbed to the epidemic. Most of them were people that she'd passed on the street once or twice, but others were people that she'd actually come into contact with. They were people she knew, and the people left behind were those that she would have to see their grief. Somewhere in the hospital, Maxie Jones was a mess. The sickness had come upon Jesse Bowdry quickly and without warning. Without time to accurately gauge his illness, he died within a couple of hours.

Courtney Matthews. Lucky Spencer. Justus Ward. These were people she was actually connected to, and people she would eventually have to tell Ric about. Courtney was her daughter's neice. Lucky was one of her best friends's son. He was her nephew's brother, and he still didn't know. Justus was a colleague, though they often ended up on opposite sides of the law. They would be mourned, and if Jason and Carly didn't return soon with the antidote, many more would follow in their wakes.

"What's wrong, huh?" Ric's fingers tapped her cheek and Alexis blinked. "Alexis…"

"Nothing." She shook her head. "I, um, I'm just tired. And poor Emily, she's been running around, ya know? Between Nikolas and AJ, and looking out for Sam and so many others. And now, she's out there because you know Stefan. He's not going to let me out of his sight without someone to give him up to date reports."

"I know you, Alexis. There's something else. What is it?"

She didn't want to tell him. He wasn't strong enough to take the news. It didn't look like Sonny was going to make it. He was growing weaker by the second, and the serum was running out. Again, it was a matter of Jason and Carly returning in time, and Sonny being close enough to the top of the list to actually get the antidote. Amazing, as often as Alexis had wished that she could get Sonny Corinthos out of her life, this wasn't the way she wanted to do it. She didn't want to have to sit beside her daughter at her father's funeral. She didn't want to sit by her husband at his brother's funeral.

"Alexis—"

"I'm just tired, Ric. There's so much sickness, and Nikolas is getting worse. There's no telling when I'll get worse. There's so much about this thing that the doctors don't know, Ric. Some of us get better only to get worse. And there's the screaming—You can hear Luis Alcazar all the way down the hall. I despise the man, but I don't want to hear anyone in that much pain."

"Then stay here with me." Ric ran his hand up and down Alexis's arm slowly. "Lay here with me, and you won't hear it. We're not even on the same floor."

"And be stuck in the same room with Tracy? Not hardly."

"I heard that," Tracy said from across the room, "and I would appreciate it if you kept your saccharine moments of morose insanity to a level just slightly above a whisper. My son doesn't need to hear what you have to say."

"Tracy, I'll let you say just about anything because Dillon's sick. But, please, for the love of all your Quartermaine money, I beg you to keep your comments to yourself." Alexis groaned. "As much as you don't want to hear us, we don't want to hear you, either."

"You can leave."

"And you can shut up." Alexis groaned and turned back to Ric. "I'm sorry you're stuck here with her." She sighed. "If we could get another bed in our room, I'm sure I could talk Stefan into letting you in. He'd do anything to keep me in the bed."

"It's fine." Ric laughed lightly. "I sleep so much that I barely even hear her half the time. And the other half, I'm so delusional that I actually think I can shut her up."

"You and your sense of humor." Alexis smiled softly. "I should probably get back to bed, though. But, I'm getting better, so I'll be back."

"You better."

This entire time in the hospital, this was her first time actually seeing Ric. She'd been unconscious in the beginning, then delusional. When she was lucid, she was too weak to do much of anything. Alexis had been filled with excitement when she was strong enough to get out of the bed and actually use the bathroom. Now, she was just glad that she could walk enough to get on the elevator and up to Ric's floor. The idea of leaving him when she'd just gotten to him was hard, but she knew it would be worse if she stayed. If she had to tear Stefan away from Nikolas to come and drag her away, he would probably have her strapped to the bed.

Behind them, Emily cleared her throat and Alexis turned to her. She really should have been going. Emily needed some rest, and it was probably killing her to be away from Nikolas for so long. She could have sent her back, but she didn't want her to incur the wrath of Stefan were she to come back to the room alone. Sighing, Alexis turned back to Ric and gave him a kiss. His lips were as hot as the rest of him, and she worried.

"I'll be back," she told him. "So, you hang on, because I'd really hate to drag myself back up here and find you gone."

"You think I'd go anywhere without you?" He gave her a lazy grin. "You don't win that easily, counselor."

"If that happened, counselor, neither of us would win." She kissed him again, then got up from the bed. Alexis walked slowly to Emily, and taking a good look at her, realized that there was something else going on besides her need to return to Nikolas's side. Her forehead was wrinkled with concern. Her eyes were dark with despair and sadness. "What happened, Emily?"

They were in the hallway, and Emily looked around. She took Alexis a little farther down the hall before she said, "I didn't want to say anything in front of Ric. I know you didn't tell him about Sonny, so I didn't want to say anything. He looks so bad, ya know? And I mean, we still haven't told Nikolas about Lucky."

"Emily—" Alexis stopped, her head shaking. "Don't tell me…"

"Bobbie just came and told me. I don't—I don't even know why she said anything, ya know? She's barely able to think with Lucky and I feel so bad that I wasn't there. I've only been to see Lucky a few times, ya know? And it's so messed up, because we were so close, but I've been spread so thin with everything going on, and he said he understood. And the last time I saw Lucky, he was fine. I just—I don't know how even managed to not tell Nikolas, but I did, so I knew I could find a way to not say anything to Ric. And I don't even like Sonny."

"Emily, you're babbling. Just—Just say. I know what it is, but.. You have to say it."

"Alexis, I…" She sighed. "I'm sorry, but Sonny…" Emily took in a deep breath. Her body sagged with her exhale. "I don't even like him. I mean, yeah, I put up with him because of Jason, and God, I don't even know how I'm gonna tell Jason about this. It'll be really hard. But, I spent so much time yelling at him. The last time I was in there, I was so mad because he actually told Michael that AJ wasn't his father with us standing right there, and I screamed at him. I said such mean things, Alexis."

"Emily! Please, just… just say it."

"Sonny…" Emily shook her head. "Alexis, Sonny died about five minutes ago."


	20. Awakening

Luis's arms were around her. They were on his yacht in the middle of the ocean, just the two of them and Cameron. Responsibilities were left behind and the only thing they had to do was love each other.

Elizabeth winced as Luis took a sharp breath, stiffening slightly. He was in pain. He was in pain and her fantasy was just that. Her eyes fluttered open to a hospital bed at GH and the epidemic that was claiming victim after victim.

She pushed herself up as carefully as she could, trying not to hurt Luis, but at the same time, moving quickly to gather her surroundings. Why was she in bed with Luis? Her back was pressed against the bars of the railing. Her eyelids were heavy and her eyes burned. Rubbing her eyes, she scanned the room until she saw Lorenzo. He was walking towards the bed and he looked like he needed the sleep that she had just gotten.

"What happened? No, wait…" She looked down at Luis and sighed. As much as she loved to be so close to him, she couldn't stay in that spot. Her back ached, and Luis didn't need the pressure against him. "Can you help me out, please?"

Lorenzo nodded and silently lowered the rail. He took Elizabeth's hand as she stepped down, first one foot, then the other, then raised the railing again when she was clear. He touched his brother's forehead lightly, but Elizabeth noticed that he didn't jerk away as she'd seen him do previously. In fact, when she woke up, Luis hadn't been as feverish as she thought he should have been.

"Lorenzo, what happened?" She ran her hands through her hair, and winced as she caught tangles at the end. She pulled her hands free and sighed. "How did I end up with Luis? And why isn't he hot? Did he get his serum? Are Jason and Carly back?"

Lorenzo shook his head. "You came in to tell us about the serum from Spencer, and you passed out. Luis insisted that you lay with him. That you sleep better with him." Did she really? She had to admit that she did. Of course, she'd always slept better while laying next to someone she loved. And if she slept that well, exhausted or not, she had admit that she was in love with him. "The doctors said that you needed your rest. There was no need to move you, so you were allowed to lay with Luis."

Elizabeth looked at Luis and bit her bottom lip. How did he manage to constantly surprise her with his selflessness? She repeatedly found herself with men that others said were bad for her, men who would eventually hurt her, but they all tried their best to show her only their good side. The part of them that was pure and sincere. She'd seen darker parts of Jason. The darkest parts of Ric. Would Luis travel those same roads? Possibly, but so far, so good.

"And the fever?"

"Dr. Drake got him a dose. It's working. His fever broke, but they won't give him his previous medication for the pain until his other symptoms have subsided. They say they have no idea how this would interact with the—"

Lorenzo searched for the word and when he couldn't find it, Elizabeth said, "Oxycontin." She nodded. "It makes sense. We've never seen anything like this before, and there's no telling what could happen. He could go into respiratory arrest, cardiac arrest. Unfortunately, he'll have to suffer a little while longer until everything can be sorted out."

Lorenzo listened intently, but the second she was finished, he turned away. He crossed the room and rested his hands on Diego's arm. He was still sick, and from his chills, shivers, and grunting, he was getting worse. Diego looked as though he didn't have the strength to thrash in pain, and all he could do was suffer silently. "Diego didn't get anything yet, did he?"

Lorenzo sighed and shook his head. "They can only take so much from Spencer at a time, and only so many serums can be made. The last available dose was given to Sam McCall's brother. He escaped the death that has claimed many others. The death that I hope won't claim my son."

Elizabeth stepped up behind him and didn't know what to say to him. She was accustomed to comforting her friends, but Lorenzo Alcazar wasn't a friend. He was her boyfriend's brother, but there was no closeness between them. They were cordial to one another, and Lorenzo was polite to everyone. He was even polite to Alexis, and she had been the one to nearly kill his brother. Elizabeth didn't think that it was her place to comfort him. That was Carly's job, and since doses of an antidote weren't being handed out like candy, she could only assume that Carly wasn't back, yet.

But, there was something else that stopped her from moving to him. Her own thoughts and questions. How long had she been asleep? The last memory Elizabeth had of patients, they were all still alive. All the patients that she hadn't gotten a chance to see in the possible hours that she'd been asleep with Luis… Some of them could have been dead. Considering that she was seeing nearly every patient on the roster, it was definite that some of hers were dead.

"Lorenzo…" Elizabeth swallowed hard. "Who died?"

He turned to her slowly and sighed. Lorenzo ran a hand through his hair, pushing towards the back, then falling forward to surf down his face. He moved around to massage his neck, then let his arm fall. Nervous gesture, maybe? Probably just tired. "I'm not sure that I should be the one telling you any of this. You have friends to handle this kind of thing."

That alone told her that it would be someone she cared about. Selfishly, she had hoped the death toll had been confined to people she knew only on a medical or passing basis. No one close to her. While she knew that it wasn't the worst. Grams wasn't sick, so she was alive. Cameron and Luis had both received the antidote. They would be fine. Nikolas? Ric?

"Lorenzo, please. Right now—If it's anyone close to me, then any of my friends won't be able to help me. If anything, I should probably be helping them."

"Perhaps I should get Nurse Spencer. You're close to her."

"Lorenzo, just tell me."

He took in a deep breath, and at first, she thought he wasn't going to say anything. He crossed the room, as though he would leave. Maybe he would go get Bobbie. He stopped at the door, however, and turned back. "Jesse Beaudry. Justus Ward. Courtney Matthews." He shook his head. "I'll have to explain somehow to Carly that Corinthos didn't make it. She's out there, and last she called, amidst some strange reference to 'chasing the chimp with Jason' as she put it, she said she was searching for a cure for Diego, but I knew she was looking for Corinthos, as well."

"That's all very sad. I mean, they're all people I know, but—Lorenzo, I'm standing here holding my breath, waiting to hear something that's going to devestate me, and I haven't heard it yet. If nothing else, you've just made me realize that I need to see Ric, just in case he's been told about Courtney and Sonny. What else aren't you telling me?"

"Elizabeth—" He shook his head. "While you were sleeping, Lucky Spencer died."

Nothing moved. Everything remained still, right up until the point where Elizabeth nearly toppled over. The forced motion made her realize that she wasn't breathing. She sucked in a huge gush of air, and her knees went weak with her exhale. She reached out to keep herself upright, and the only thing nearby was the foot of Luis's bed. She jerked her hand free and fell to the floor.

Lucky had been her first love. He was the one that brought her back from the brink of insanity, paranoia, and seclusion after her rape. She'd mourned his death after the fire, screaming out her pain until there was nothing left within her with which to grieve. She'd helped him through hallucinations and brainwashing. For a vast majority of her life, Elizabeth thought that she and Lucky would be together forever. That they were destined to be together. And now… Now, he was dead, and this time it was for real.

But, it didn't feel like before. She didn't ache like the fire. She was shocked. She was hurt. But, there wasn't the overwhelming urge to throw up. Honestly, throughout her waking hours in the hospital, she'd only been to Lucky's room a few times, much less than she should have been. And as she thought of the loss of Lucky, she felt more pain for Nikolas and Emily than she did for herself.

The four of them hadn't been the Four Musketeers in years. They had changed, and in the process, they'd been splintered. While Emily got her dream of Nikolas falling in love with her, Elizabeth found that her dream of being with Lucky forever wasn't going to happen. He grew into someone she didn't recognize, a man who couldn't find the fun in life anymore. He pulled away from everything that had been great about them, and in the end, they were barely able to be friends. He condemned her choice of Luis. She resented his meddling. She'd told him once, "Just because you forgot how to enjoy life, doesn't mean that I have to do the same thing."

And now… Now, Lucky was gone.

"Liz?" She blinked up at Bobbie. She knelt in front of her, arms on her shoulders. "Liz, look at me."

"Bobbie?" Elizabeth swallowed hard and shook her head. "Oh, Bobbie, I'm so sorry!" She threw her arms around her and cried on her shoulder. Yet, she felt guilty, because the tears should have been completely for Lucky. For her own loss, but they were for Bobbie. She still had her nephew. Elizabeth had lost Lucky long ago. She knew that she had lost Lucky, the real Lucky Spencer, when he died the first time in that fire.

"You know about Lucky." Bobbie sighed, and Elizabeth could hear the tears in her voice. "We still haven't told Nikolas. He's too sick right now, and Stefan won't let us tell him. But Luke…"

"Oh, God, he thinks this is his fault, doesn't he? That he brought the virus and…" Elizabeth pulled back from Bobbie and wiped her eyes. "I…" What could she say? If she were going to tell anyone how she felt about Lucky's death, it wasn't going to be Bobbie. She couldn't look into his aunt's face and tell her that she didn't feel enough for his death. That it made her realize how far gone her love for him truly had been. But, what did she say?

Elizabeth was saved from the uncomfortable moment by Lorenzo. He looked down at her as he slapped his phone shut. When had he made a call? "That was Carly." Okay, so when had he received a call? She hadn't even heard the phone ring. "She and Morgan have the chimp and they're on their way back. She said to have Dr. Drake or Scorpio waiting for them at the front so they can get in the hospital." Lorenzo rushed to Diego's side and whispered softly. "You'll be safe soon, Diego. Carly—Carly came through. She has saved your life, and I will never forget that."

Elizabeth swallowed hard and slowly climbed to her feet. She looked at Bobbie, and she wanted to have such hope. All of the people who were ill, they would finally get their freedom. They would get what was needed to make them well. But, it was too late for the Spencer family. Lucky was already dead, and this time, there would be no miraculous resurrection.


	21. Breakdown

Carly was two seconds away from assaulting an officer. Not exactly a smart move, but sometimes she couldn't help it. "Are you SERIOUS? Let us in NOW. How's that for 'authorization'?"

"Carly." Jason's voice was oddly calm, his hand on her arm stilling her.

"Jason, people are dying in there and this… idiot!" Carly balled her fists and screamed raggedly. "Don't you know what's going on? Don't you have any idea… We have the chimp, you overpaid rent-a-cop!"

This whole thing had been much more fun and exciting before getting back to the hospital. The pained look on Jason's face every time she told someone they were chasing the chimp made Carly laugh every time. She couldn't help it that what they were actually doing had a sexual ring to it when it was said out loud. But now that she knew, she thought she might call it that all the time. Chasing the chimp. It had a nice ring to it.

But now that they were back… the fun was gone and she was just aggravated. Yeah, yeah, these guys were just doing their job but they took taking orders a bit too far. Would these idiots actually let people die because they had orders? Jason was holding the cure by the hand, and they wouldn't let them in the hospital.

"Let them through." Carly blinked and looked up. "Robert Scorpio," he said to the police. "These people have the chimp we've been looking for, so let them in."

"About time." Carly thrust past the SWAT team. "What took you so long, huh? Didn't I call ahead? Weren't you supposed to be waiting? And… Where the hell is Patrick!"

"Carly, would you calm down." Jason groaned and handed the chimp over to Robert. "Here, take him. I need to get to Sam and Danny." He started to walk past, then stopped and turned. "And after everything that I did to get this damn thing, Sam and Danny had better be on the top of the list to get the serum."

"McCall…" Robert thought for a second, then said, "The brother has already gotten it. He almost died and we couldn't wait any longer. The rest is up to Dr. Drake."

Jason didn't hear the rest of it. He didn't hear anything past Danny almost dying. He was off at a dead run into the hospital. Which left Carly walking quickly with Robert. She didn't have much to say to him. She could have asked if anyone she knew had died, but he wouldn't know how to tell her. He'd just spit it out, the way he'd done with Jason about Danny, and that definitely wasn't the way to tell her. There was only one person who knew how to tell her anything.

Carly took a turn down a hallway, then ran for the elevator. People rushed her. How did all these people know that she'd been on a mission? Everyone wanted to know what had happened, if she got the chimp, and she didn't have time to talk to them. When Emily ran up to her, she would have brushed her off, too, except…

"What do you mean Michael was here?" She shook her head. "Is he sick? Where is he?"

"He's um, he's with AJ."

"He's…" She shook her head. "Ya know, I let a lot go because Jason loves you, but this—I don't want my boy around AJ!"

"He's his father, Carly! He has a right to know him, and if it weren't for Michael, AJ probably would have died!" Emily took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I don't like you, Carly. You used Jason, then you stomped all over his heart for Sonny, but Jason cares about you. For whatever reason, AJ cared about you at one time. But right now… All I'm saying is that Michael is going to need AJ, and since he's obviously not going to leave and stay gone, there's nothing else any of us can do."

So cryptic. "What are you trying to tell me, Emily?" But the girl was mum. She clamped her lips and shook her head. "Fine. Lorenzo will tell me."

And she was off again. The elevators were taking forever, so she went for the stairs. Her feet ached from the previous running, and now her heels were even worse. But, she pushed on, speeding up the stairs. She burst through the door and stood in the hallway, trying to gather her surroundings. "Right?" She turned her head, then groaned. "No, left."

Carly took off again, pushing through doctors and patients. There seemed to be less people in the halls. Had enough died to move them out and these other people in? She shook her head. This wasn't the time to start caring about other people. She ran off down the hallway and skidded to a halt in the doorway to Diego and Luis's room.

Lorenzo looked up from his chair beside Diego's bed. The second he saw her, he came quickly. He didn't run, but his stride was quick and clipped. He put his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes before pulling her close and squeezing her. There was such desperation in his grasp, in his labored breathing.

"What—" Reluctantly, Carly pulled back from him. She would have liked nothing more than to stay in his arms, but there were things that she needed to know. "Luis and Diego are still here. They're not dead."

"No. Luis was given the serum from Spencer because of his pain, but Diego…" He turned towards his son. "He's not been conscious in hours. He comes close, but he never… It's a wonder he hasn't slipped into a coma. I've heard that others have done that."

"Lorenzo…" Carly took him by the face and turned him to look at her. "Lorenzo, look at me. Diego will be fine. He'll pull through this, and he'll be so grateful that you were by his side that any problems you two had before will be gone. You have no idea the effect that chaos can have on a relationship."

"The only affect I've seen is damaging." He touched her face lightly, fingertips barely brushing her cheeks. "I've always had the damaging affect on you with my chaos."

Carly opened her mouth to counter him, to soothe his hurt feelings, but she wasn't that selfless. She came into this room with a purpose, a selfish one, and she had to get that over with first. "Lorenzo, I need you to tell me the truth. I don't want you to be cryptic, because I ran into Emily in the hallway and I have enough of that. I know that Michael is in this hospital somewhere."

"He's been taken home three times already."

"And he'll keep coming back until he knows that everyone is fine. I need to show him that I'm here, and then he'll go. But, before that can happen, I need to know who's dead. I need to know… I need to know if I have to explain anything to my boys."

"Carly, I think you already know the answer to that question." Lorenzo took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. "And I'm afraid that if you make me say it out loud, you'll use it against me. You'll kill the messenger."

Carly stumbled back from him, her head shaking. Had she known? Probably, ever since seeing Emily. Carly knew that AJ and Sonny were stuck in the same room, and she would have said something if he were still alive. She would have thrown it in her face that Michael was with AJ and not Sonny. Or she would have said that he was in the room with both of them. But she said that Michael was in AJ's room. That meant that it wasn't Sonny's room, anymore.

"No…" Carly's jaw trembled. Her eyes stung with the tears that were starting to flow. Lorenzo stepped towards her, and she put her hands up. "No. You're lying, Lorenzo. He's not…" She shook her head. "You're lying!"

"For your sake, Carly, I wish I were."

"No… No, see, you're wrong. You know how I know you're wrong? Because Sonny never dies. Sonny… No, see, everybody around Sonny dies. Everyone around Sonny gets destroyed, but he comes out on top." She barked a harsh laugh. "When Alexis said that as her sister's funeral, I thought she was just crazy, but she was right. Sonny—He always wins. Sonny always survives. So, Sonny's not dead. You have to be wrong."

"Carly, he's not the only one."

"I don't care about the rest!" She stumbled backwards more, moving until she bumped into the foot of Luis's bed. She fell to the floor and pulled her knees up. "He's not dead, Lorenzo. Why would you tell me he was dead if he isn't dead? I… Jason…" She blinked up at Lorenzo. "How do I tell my boys that he's gone? How do I tell Jason? What are they going to do without him?"

Carly looked around the room with wide eyes. Her legs fell slowly to the floor, and she hugged herself. Her body ached, and it had nothing to do with the running she'd been doing and everything to do with Sonny. He didn't die. That was just… It was a fact of life. He got shot, stabbed, whatever, but he didn't die. The people around him died, yeah, but he didn't. Sonny was invincible. Sonny was above mortality. Sonny didn't die.

She had imagined her life divorced from Sonny, living without him, but she never imagined life without his existence. Sonny was her crutch, different than the way she fell back on Jason. With Jason, she had his friendship. She had his trust and his loyalty. Sonny had never been loyal to her. Sonny wasn't even her friend. But when she was getting too close to being happy, too close to having a good life, Carly fell back on her crutch. She went to Sonny because she knew that she wouldn't truly be happy with him. That, unlike others, he wouldn't love her as much as she deserved. He would only love her as much as he could.

But now… There was nothing to fall back on. He was just… gone, and this would affect people she loved. How did she tell the boys that their father was gone? She knew how Michael thought. Michael would think that she let him die, that Carly hadn't worked fast enough. Would he be right? She and Jason had done all they could. They'd been up and down every street in town, over every pier, and had crossed state lines to get this thing back. She'd worked her ass off to get that chimp back to the hospital, but had she really been doing it for Sonny? No, she'd done it for Diego. And Jason had done it for Sam.

And what about Jason? How was he going to take it? He and Sonny had issues like anyone else, but Jason still loved him like a brother. He loved Sonny more than he loved his own flesh and blood brother. Jason had come back in time with a cure for Sam, but not soon enough to save Sonny. He hadn't even seen Sonny since he'd been in the hospital. Jason hadn't seen anyone in the hospital other than Sam and Danny. How much would his heart break to know that he didn't even get the chance to say goodbye?

"Carly?" She looked up, and Bobbie was standing over her. She was out of breath. "God, Carly, are you okay?" She looked tired and haggard, like she hadn't gotten any rest at all. "Robert brought in the chimp, and I knew you were back. Carly?"

"He's really dead, Momma." Carly swallowed hard. "He's dead, and I don't know how to tell Jason or the boys. But… Michael already knows, right? He's in there with AJ and he's probably being told all kind of horrible things. I didn't save him for them, Momma. I didn't save Sonny for them."

"What about yourself, Carly?" Bobbie looked carefully into her eyes and Carly knew that she was doing it medically. "Carly, I think you should get off the floor and maybe find a bed. You have to be exhausted, and I think you're going into shock."

"I'm not…" Carly shook her head. "I didn't save him for them, Momma," she said again. "I was supposed to save him for them, because they need him."

"Carly…"

"No about me, alright? No! I don't… I don't need him. I have Lorenzo, I don't need him! But, Jason and the boys… they need him. How do I tell them? How do I tell them that they lost him when I didn't? They'll blame me. They'll say I didn't love him enough and they'll be right! I don't love him and…" Carly screamed, then threw herself forward, crying bitter tears. "How do I tell them!"


	22. Cry For You

Emily was there when he woke up. The bed across from him stood stripped and empty. AJ wasn't quite sure what to make of the latter, how he truly felt. But the former brought a smile to his face, until he caught sight of the tears on the girl's cheeks.

"Emily?" AJ reached out towards her, and though his movements were slow, he still felt stronger than he could remember being in over a day.

She blinked at him and paused for a moment with her mouth hung open. "I hated him, AJ." She swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes closed. "I hated him so much, and I was so mean to him. He died, and I was so mean to him."

AJ sighed. That was the perfect example of how good his sister could actually be. How pure and sweet was her soul. A man who had done so much to hurt the people she loved… He was dead, and she was wracked with guilt because she'd said mean things to him. Emily was too good of a person to have been brought into the Quartermaine loony bin. But, at least…. He sighed. At least she hadn't been tainted by it.

"I'm sorry." His voice was little more than a croak. AJ coughed to clear it, but there was nothing to push out of the way. He was just exhausted, and though he was getting better, he was still pretty bad. He pushed himself up in the bed and groaned. "Come here…"

"AJ…" She stared at him for a second, crying silently, then her eyes went suddenly wide. Her hands flew to her mouth. "Oh my God, you're moving and you're talking and I'm not even—God, I'm so selfish!"

"Em, you've got to be the least selfish person I know." AJ's head lolled to the side and he looked at her from beneath drooping eyelids. "If I know you, you've been to everybody's room to make sure that they're okay. You've made the rounds. You've let people cry on your shoulder. I even think you talked to Michael after—" He sighed. "You're not selfish, Em."

"Yeah, I am, and worse than that, I'm being selfish to you. I'm the one person in the world that's always on your side and all I can do is think about how awful I was to him before he died."

"Em, come on." He reached out to her again. "I don't have the strength to hold my arm up here forever, ya know."

AJ tried to give her a weak smile. It either didn't make it or it didn't work. Though she came, she was still sad. Her tears had stopped falling, but her eyes were still very sad. She didn't deserve any of this. She had to be the sweetest, most caring person that he had ever known. Hell, to put up with him, she had to be a freaking saint. She deserved better than to have all of this raining down on her.

"It's like his whole family's just gone, ya know?" She sighed and looked down at AJ. "I… I didn't want to tell you before, because you were so sick. And, me being selfish again, I really didn't wanna have to say something to someone else that might hurt them. I didn't' wanna watch again. I told Nikolas…"

She stopped and AJ urged her on. "Em, just say it."

"No." She shook her head. "I shouldn't be putting this on you. I can do this."

"Em, you do everything yourself. You help everybody else, but you don't let anyone help you. I swear, it's like you and Elizabeth Webber are trying to carry the world on your shoulders, but you can't. Sometimes, you've got to talk to people."

"AJ…" She sighed. "Lucky died. And it was so hard for me, because he was the first person outside of the Quartermaines that I met when I came here, but… AJ, I had to tell Nikolas, and he looked so distraught. It was like, I thought he'd cry, ya know? But instead, he just went into this shell and he won't talk to me. This is twice that he's lost his brother, and this time it's for real. And now… Now, I have to tell you something, and you might do the same thing."

"Is it Mom? Did Mom get sick? Emily, if it's Mom."

"No! No, it's not Mom. I just…" She wiped fresh tears from her cheeks. "You were one of the people that slipped into a coma, AJ. Luckily, it was right before Jason and Carly came back, so it wasn't for too long, but still… I don't even know if I should be telling you this."

"Emily, please, just tell me what it is."

She took a deep breath and said, "AJ, Courtney died, too."

He stared at her. Courtney? AJ hadn't had a good thing to say about Courtney in years. He had loved her so much at one time, but as he watched her brother die, it never even occurred to her that she might have been affected by it. He didn't even know that she was sick, but now he knew that she was dead.

"Did you tell Jason?"

Emily looked at him in shock. "I…" She shook her head. "Robintold him. She told him about Courtney and Sonny. I… I don't understand. I mean, you're not…"

"What? I'm not crying?"

"Well… I mean, you were in love with her once, weren't you?"

"Em… I don't know." He sighed and shook his head. "Maybe later, when everything hits, I might cry over it. I'm not saying good riddance or anything. I'm not jumping for joy. Hell, I'm not about to throw any parties soon, and I despised Sonny. I just… there's nothing in me for her right now. If I cry, it's going to be for you."

"For me? But… why?"

"Look at everything you've been through. Nikolas was sick. Cameron was sick. People that you cared about were here and could have died. Lucky did die, and you have to deal with that. You've been back and forth, defending me to the point of exhaustion, and yet here you are. You're sitting here with me, trying to make it all better. Trying to make sure that I'm alright."

"AJ…"

"Emily, you're the only person in the world other than Grandmother that I ever felt really loved me. You didn't love me because you had to. You loved me because that's who you are. With Grandmother gone, you're all I have left."

"That's not true, AJ. Mom and Dad were in here, and Mom even cried. They love you, AJ. Ned even said he was sorry. That he'd never forgive himself if you died. People love you, AJ."

"Not like you do." He reached up and lightly touched her cheek with his fingertips. "You… I don't know, Em. You're the family that I never had, that I never deserved, and we aren't even blood related. But, you're more a sister to me now than Jason was a brother even before the accident. He helped me because he had to. You help me because you want to. So, if I shed any tears right now, it's because you finally need some help and all I can be is a burden to you."

"AJ, you're not…"

"Yeah," he said, "I am. But, it's fine. When this is over, when I'm back on my feet, I'll make it up to you. Whatever you need, I'll get it. And if that includes kicking Cassadine ass because he shut you out, then I"ll just have to do that. You're my sister, Emily, and you know what I think?"

She gave him a bitter smile and wiped away fresh tears from AJ"s cheek as she asked, "What?"

"I think that it's time someone cried for you."


	23. Give Me Your Tears

_Author's Note: You may notice that, from the last chapter, I changed who it was that told Jason about Sonny and Courtney. It's not an error, I just changed my mind about what I wanted there. So, to go along with it, I went back and I changed the line in the previous chapter where Emily tells AJ that Carly told Jason. It now says that Robin told him.

* * *

_

When Sam awoke to find Jason sitting at her bedside, she thought she'd died. Heaven, in her eyes, would end up being as simple as the two of them together. But when his hand reached over and brushed the side of her face only slightly rough, she knew that this was no dream and she hadn't died. But she had woken up from what, quite possibily, was the worst nightmare she'd ever had.

Her moment of wistfulness was broken as she shot up from the bed. "Danny!" She reached out, stretching towards the other side of the room. Jason held her back, and she knew that it had to be bad. He wouldn't hold her down if it weren't, would he? "Danny… Jason, please, don't tell me…"

"Danny's fine," he said softly. He brushed hair sticky with sweat back from her face and Sam closed her eyes. "He got the serum from Luke. He's sleeping, but he's fine."

Sam let her body sag, practically collapsing forward onto Jason. She didn't have the strength it took to squeeze him like she wanted, so she had to settle for weakly digging her fingers into his shoulders. She'd wanted him there with her so much over the past few hours. In and out of consciousness, the fear of Danny dying… At one point, Sam didn't think that she would make it. She didn't think she had it in her to fight anymore.

She couldn't remember anything past Patrick shocking her brother. She'd fallen unconscious into Emily's arms and hadn't woken since. In feverish dreams, she had seen the dead parading past her. Danny carrying Lila, telling Sam that he had found his neice and he would take good care of her. Their mother standing over her, telling her that she destroys everything that she touches. Nico trying to drag her down into Hell, when all she wanted to do was go up to Heaven with Danny and Lila. More dead, more people that she had hurt in some way or another. The only smiling face being her brother's.

Sam shook the memories from her head, then pulled back. She looked up at Jason, and he seemed so—Distant, maybe? He was there, stroking her face, but his eyes were vacant. What could he have possibly seen while he was out getting that chimp that would leave him so haunted?

"Jason—" Sam swallowed. Her throat was dry. She coughed, then swallowed again. "Jason, what's wrong?"

"They said…" He closed his eyes for a second, and took deep breaths. He opened his eyes again, and though they were still vacant, they glistened with unshed tears. "Emily told me that you slipped into a coma after Danny…" His head turned slightly towards Danny, then back to Sam. "She told me that you were just barely hanging on, and if I didn't get back when I did…"

"But, you came back to me, Jason. You saved me like you always do." She gave him as much of a smile as she could muster. "It's what you do, isn't it? You save me from myself and whatever else may be out there."

"I wasn't here with you, Sam, and I… I'm sorry for that." He gently pushed her shoulders back until she was resting against her pillows again. Jason took her hands in his and sighed. "I'm no good at this hand holding thing, Sam. I couldn't just sit here and do nothing, even though I did it for a long time."

"There was nothing that you could do."

"Not until I saw that chimp running away. I can't believe I got up so fast and ran out of here like that. You and Danny were sleeping. I didn't even say goodbye. But, I couldn't lose it. I couldn't let it get out, and if we hadn't chased it, they might not have ever found it. You might have—"

Sam sighed and closed her eyes. At one point, she really had thought she was going to die. Before Danny crashed, before there were whispers of nameless patients dying, she thought she would die. And in the middle of that, she found a hatred for Jason that she hadn't felt since they first met. How could he be off with Carly while she was dying? That really proved who he loved. He loved Carly enough to run off on some crazy adventure with, and he didn't love Sam enough to stay with her and hold her hand. She had to die there without him, and Jason wouldn't even care.

Then lucidity struck her, and she never felt the anger again. If anything related to it, she felt guilt. She should have had more faith in him than that. She should have known that he had sat there for as long as possible. That he was out there for her, trying to save her, instead of sitting there and watching her die.

"Ya know, I really hate that I'm gonna have to owe Carly after this." Sam groaned, then pursed her lips. "But, wait, I don't owe her anything, do I? I mean, this was just making things even, right? I helped you get Michael and Morgan back from Faith, so she was just paying up." Sam sighed. "I kinda liked it with her owing me."

"She didn't." Jason snorted a laugh, and though it didn't quite reach his eyes, Sam was glad for the sound. It meant that he was at least coming to life. Again, she wondered what he had seen, but she didn't think that he would answer just yet.

"How many times did she try to talk you out of me?"

"Actually?" He shrugged. "Carly and I had a talk. Everything is fine, and she's not getting in the middle, anymore."

"That's a shocker." Jason should have laughed at the comment, or at the very least, given her a disapproving look, admonishing her for her skepticism. But, he was back to blank, back to cold. "Jason, what's wrong?" He shook his head and she said, "I know something's wrong, and if my head were clear, I'd probably have figured it out by now. I'm just getting better so fast that I don't think my brain has caught up with the medicine."

"Sam, don't worry about me. You need to focus on getting better, so we can go home. I still owe you and Danny that trip to Hawaii."

At his name, Danny started to moan, and Sam was up again. Jason tried to hold her back into the bed, but she slipped under his arms and dropped to the floor. She scooted along the floor until she reached Danny's bed. Sam pulled herself up and looked down at him with a smile so wide that her face felt like it would tear. Rubbing his forehead, she said, "Hey. You been sleepin' on me the whole time?"

Danny gave a childlike smile to her and shook his head. "I woke up, but you were still sleeping so I went back to sleep." Sam laughed at the image. Danny's head popping up, seeing her out, and just curling back up on his bed. But, Danny wasn't laughing. Danny was chewing his bottom lip nervously and his eyes were downcast. "I'm sorry, Sam."

"What?" Sam looked down at him with confusion. "What do you have to be sorry about, Danny?"

"I heard what Dr. Robin told Jason. That—"

"Danny." Jason didn't yell, but his tone was sharp. He shook his head. "We can talk about that later, Danny. Right now, you both need to rest. We're taking that trip to Hawaii the second they release you from the hospital. We'll rent some bikes and go speeding around Oahu. And I promised to teach you to swim, remember?"

"Yeah…" Danny's eyes lit up. "We're gonna have fun, and it'll be like this never happened."

"Right. It'll be… It'll be back to normal." Jason didn't believe that anymore than Sam did. She could see it in his eyes.

"Stop, alright? You're changing the subject, and I can tell that it's bad." Sam turned to Danny and gently took his hand in hers. "Danny, I want you to tell me what Dr. Robin said to Jason, okay? What did you hear?"

"I don't know… Jason doesn't want me to."

"I want you to, Danny. Please? Nobody will be mad at you. Why are you sorry, Danny? What did Dr. Robin say to Jason?"

"She said…" He tried to turn his head to look past Sam to Jason, but Sam took a light grip on his chin and kept his eyes trained on her. "She said Sonny and his sister didn't make it, Sam. I'm sorry, Jason. I didn't know when I started that I wasn't supposed to tell her. Jason, please don't be mad at me."

"He's not mad, Danny." She turned around and said, "Jason, tell him you're not mad."

When Jason looked up he had tears in his eyes. Standing before, when Danny first started talking, Jason was sitting on Sam's bed, his shoulders hunched forward. He ran a hand over his hair and said, "I'm not mad at you, Danny." His eyes passed to Sam and she was already on her way to him. "Don't," he said, putting his hand out. "I'm fine."

"Jason, you're not…" She tried to hug him, and he fought her off. She wondered if he would have fought harder if she were stronger. If he would have gotten up and left the room if she weren't sick. That would have been the easiest way to avoid any comfort. To just leave. But he didn't leave. "Jason…"

"Sam, don't, alright? Just… let me…"

"Cry," she said with a sigh. Sam hugged him, pressing her face to his chest. "Cry if you want, Jason. Nobody will tell that you did." He was still and she thought that he would push her away and walk out. But instead, after a minute or so, she felt his chin press down on her shoulder, and a second later, she felt his tears dropping like a slow rain onto her hospital gown.


	24. Acceptance

Emily sat in the hallway, back pressed against the wall beside NIkolas's doorway, her legs crossed Indian style as she fought back the latest round of tears. She'd give anything to be able to actually be in the room, helping Nikolas, but she feared the iciness in his eyes. Understandably so. He'd just lost his brother and she really wasn't able to do anything for him but hold his hand and offer a shoulder.

"Honestly, I would have thought you to have more of a drive than this. You say that you love him, yet in his moment of need, you're no where to be found." Stefan's clipped voice sparked an anger in Emily hadn't known she possessed.

"You're unbelievable!" She pushed herself to her feet. Emily stomped and balled her fists at her sides. "Even now… After all of this…" She shook her head. "I realize that you had no use for Lucky, but you could at least have some freaking sympathy! But, oh no. That would be too much like.. like… human! The great Stefan Cassadine couldn't possbily be human. Oh no, that would ruin the illusion of Cassadine masterpiece."

Emily took in a deep breath… and she ranted. "Go on, Stefan. Go on and tell me that I'm not strong enough for him. It gives you another reason to start this mess, doesn't it? I mean, come on." She gave a harsh, unamused laugh. A laugh that was filled with bitterness and angst. "Great chance to get rid of me, don't ya think? Tell Nikolas that I don't care enough to be with him when his brother just died. Well, guess what? I loved Lucky, too! He was the first friend I made in this town, and it hurts! It hurts that I couldn't do a damned thing but stand there and hold his hand while he died! That I couldn't help him, and that if Nikolas had died, I wouldn't have done anything for him, either.

"And what makes you think that I actually want to stand there and have Nikolas look at me just like you look at me, huh? I'll stand there and hold his hand. I'll tell him how sorry I am, that I'll do anything for him, but he'll know that I won't because I can't. I can't do anything, and when he looks at me like that…

"I can't stand it, do you hear me! I can't! I can't… have hm look at me like I'm nothing. I won't be able to stand it, and in the end, you win. So, it's a good thing, right? I mean, you get exactly what you want and I just get… I get the nothing that you probably think I deserve." Again, she laughed bitterly. Her arm flopped up and fell to her side, slapping her throat. "You'll get to take Nikolas home and have your perfect Cassadine prince, and I won't have anything because Liz has Luis and Lucky is dead! You get that? He's dead and I can't have Nikolas dead to me, too!"

Without much breath left, Emily fell in on herself, bending over at the waist. She gripped her ankles and tried to breathe. She was dizzy and her head ached. She needed sleep, she knew that. Maybe she wouldn't have gone off the way she did if she actually had gotten some sleep. Forcing herself to stay awake for over a day wasn't doing her any good. Without sleep, she couldn't suitably combat Stefan.

Emily didn't want him knowing her feelings. That was giving him something to use against her. Wasn't the entire reason that he was so successful in everything because he didn't show his feelings? And that's what got Jason through life. Not showing their emotions to the enemy was how one survived, and Stefan Cassadine was definitely the enemy. He was the enemy of her love life. He was the enemy of her future as the Cassadine princess. Her future of becoming Emily Bowen Cassadine.

"You do realize that you have effectively told Nikolas everything that you just told me?" Blinking rapidly, Emily stood up straight and stared at Stefan. "He's awake, and if you did not want him to hear your thoughts, you shouldn't yell them for an entire hospital to hear."

Emily gulped. "I didn't… I didn't know he was awake."

"He has been awake for hours, asking if I had finally… How did he put it? Ah yes, run you off." Stefan put his hands behind his back and set his jaw. For a moment, his eyes wavered to something softer. He must have realized it, though, because he quickly corrected his error. "This is unfortunately not something that I am suited to help my nephew survive. As you've already stated, my feelings towards Lucky Spencer have never strayed to the side of loving."

"That's a nice way of putting it," she grunted.

Stefan cleared his throat, and Emily jumped. How did that man manage to make everything file like a lecture? This was like being in school. But, she quieted down and let him continue. "As I was saying, I am not equipped to give Nikolas the support he needs. As you said in your emotional display, Elizabeth Webber is otherwise preoccupied. While I understand that you have your own grief for Spencer, and your brother is in this hospital…"

"And I've got other—" He glared at her and she gulped. "Sorry."

Stefan nodded. "You shared feelings for Spencer, and would therefore understand what Nikolas is feeling. This display of yours…" Stefan gave a curt shake of his head. "I have seen more strength and determination than I would have expected from you since this ordeal began. I find myself rather displeased and more than a little disappointed at this weakness that you're showing. I would have expected more from a future Cassadine princess."

Yeah, she was definitely sleep deprived, because Emily could have sworn… "Did you—" She shook her head. "Ya know what? You're confusing me. One minute, I'm not doing enough for Nikolas and the next… The next, I don't know what's going on."

"Alexis, Nikolas, and I have spoken and it has been made very clear to me that I have no say in Nikolas's choice of a bride. My young prince has grown into a man and does not need my permission to marry. Because of this, my choices in what to do are extremely limited. Out of those few choices, I have chosen to accept as much as I can."

"Still confusing me."

"I am telling you that I will accept the parts of you that seem acceptable, and ignore the others. We must all make sacrifices, and that is mine. Your sacrifice, then, is to gather your strength and go into that room. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to find my wayward sister and coerce her into returning to her bed."

Stefan stepped to the side, and as he walked off, his hands came free from behind his back and swung at his sides. Emily watched him for a few minutes, thoroughly bewildered by the entire situation. Not only was Stefan going to lay off on the wedding, he was trying to accept her? He found some things worthy? This whole thing was just… confusing.

"Emily!" She jumped at Nikolas's voice. With his watcher gone, he could get from the bed. He could walk across the room and stand at the doorway. "Emily, please, look at me."

She turned slowly. He looked a lot better. He wasn't covered in thick sweat, anymore. His strength was returning, but the tire in his face and the bags under his eyes told her that there was still weakness there. "You should be laying down," she said with a sigh. "Cure or not, you still need to give your body time to heal."

"Emily, don't do this." He shook his head. "Don't shut me out."

"Nikolas, I'm not—"

"You are. I thought at first that you were resenting me. That you wouldn't come see me because you resented the fact that I lived and Lucky didn't."

"Nikolas, I would never—"

"But, I heard what you said to Uncle. You're shutting me out because you're afraid that I'll shut you out. I need you right now, Emily. I need you more than I've ever needed you, than I've ever needed anyone. I wouldn't shut you out, so please don't do that to me."

"I just… I know what grief can do to people. Some of us cry. Some of us shut down, and I remember what happened when Lucky died the first time in the fire. You shut down on me, on everybody. I had to force my way in, and I don't want to ever see that look on your face again."

"Those were different times, Emily, different circumstances. Everything's different now. And now—Now, I just need you to come in here with me. Please."

Nikolas extended his hand and Emily stared. To say that he wouldn't shut her out was one thing. To actually do it was another. But, he was so sincere, and there was such pleading in his eyes. She sighed and took his hand. "Let me put you back to bed, Nikolas," she said. Emily looped his arm around her shoulders and walked pressed against him to the bed.


	25. Stay

Carly had dusted herself off, both literally and figuratively, and made her way towards the room that Sonny had died in. When she'd heard Michael was in there, she'd been concerned that he would be inconsolable, and there was the distinct possibility he would be by the time she made it there. But what surprised her even more was the fact that Emily had told her she left him in there with AJ, and that, at least for the time she was in there, they were merely sitting there. Neither speaking, neither doing much of anything but listen to the other breathe.

Carly had been sure that Emily was making that up. She was trying to prove a point about AJ or whatever, but she was lying. There was no way that Michael would stay in the room with AJ and not fight. There was no way that AJ would lay there, especially after Sonny was dead, and not try to fill Michael's heads with lies. Emily was just stalling or trying to trick her or something. They couldn't have just been—

And then she was at the door, and unbelievably, they were just sitting there. AJ had gotten his dose of cure, and though he still looked like hell, he didn't look like he was dying. Michael sat in a chair beside the bed, much closer to AJ than Carly would have thought he'd be, staring at the bed across the room. AJ and Michael didn't look at each other. They didn't say anything to each other. They probably didn't even know that she was in the doorway. They just sat there, staring at that bed.

Then Carly stared at that bed. She walked slowly into the room, and looked at the bed that Sonny had died in. The sheets were gone. The pillows were gone Any machines that had been around were gone. There was nothing but a dingy mattress, waiting for someone to come in and put new sheets on it. To prepare it for the next person who might need it.

She tried to cry. Really she did. Carly put her hands on the mattress and squeezed, as if holding on would give her some hint of Sonny. Like something of him was still there and he'd give her something that would make her fall into a heap of tears. Instead, she could only be glad that Michael and Morgan hadn't gotten sick. That Jason never got sick. That Lorenzo didn't get sick.

Was she sorry that Sonny was dead? Of course. Michael and Morgan would have to live life without their father. Jason would be without his brother. She would have to watch them live in agony, remembering what they had lost. And she… She had only lost someone that hadn't been good for her anyway.

She would have preferred to get Sonny out of her life some other way, but deep down, she knew that his death was the only way to truly disconnect herself. Carly felt guilty for thinking that way. Sonny had been her world for so many years, and there she was relieved that she could finally be rid of him. This wasn't the way she was supposed to get him out of her life. He wasn't supposed to die. He was just supposed to go away.

"Mom?" Carly blinked and turned her head. Michael was still in his chair, but he looked at her. He looked like he was surprised to see her. Like he hadn't seen her walk into the room. He probably hadn't. "Dad died."

"I know." She turned back to the bed and sighed. "I'm sorry I wasn't here for you, Mr. Man."

"He… He was just sitting there. He was talking." Carly turned back to see Michael look at AJ, then return his eyes to her. "I couldn't really hear him, ya know? There were doctors in here and they were crowded around him. I was in the door, 'cause I wasn't supposed to be there. Emily made me go downstairs to the cafeteria, but I came back up, anyway."

"Michael—"

"I don't know what he said, but he looked at me." Michael blinked and shook his head. "I think he knew I was there. He just looked at me through all the people, and then he died. They said time of death and everything. He just died."

Carly walked to him slowly. She knelt down in front of Michael and put her hands on his knees. She hadn't been there for him. It wasn't the first time. Carly was well aware of the fact that she often let her own mess interfere with her time with the boys. She ignored them so often, yet she claimed to be a good mother. How good of a mother was she really if she was never there for them? If she wasn't there for Michael when he needed her to be there.

"You got the chimp, I know that." Michael looked down at her, and Carly thought that there wasn't enough emotion in his face. Sickly enough, he had the same expression that AJ had when she walked into the room. To ease her mind, she switched gears and likened it to someone else. He had the same expression that she guessed Jason would have upon hearing the news. Cold, bewildered… shocked. "You didn't get it in time for Dad."

"I'm sorry, Michael." Carly felt tears start to well up and she squeezed her eyes shut. She forced the tears back down, refusing to let them fall. She opened her eyes again and swallowed hard. "I tried, Michael. Me and Jason both. We got back as soon as we could, I promise you."

"I know." Michael sighed. "You saved a lot of other people."

"But, I didn't save your dad."

"Or Aunt Courtney."

"Or Aunt Courtney." This time, she couldn't stop the tears from falling. She didn't even try that hard. She just let them flow. "If I could have gotten back sooner, I would have. You shouldn't have been here alone."

"I wasn't alone." He turned to the side, and that was when Carly saw it. What she missed when she first came into the room. She was so focused on their faces, that similar expression, she had missed something all the more frightening to her. That Michael was holding AJ's hand.

There were a dozen reasons that Carly could think of for not wanting AJ to be near Michael. He would poison him against Sonny. He would poison him against her. When he was in better physical shape, he would grab Michael and run off. Carly could rattle them off with a practiced tongue because they were all reasons she'd given to others before when explaining herself. He didn't really love Michael, he was just using him to get in Edward's good graces. He just wanted to get ahold of him out of spite, to take him away from Carly like she had taken him away from AJ.

Looking at him, though, a new sprouted. AJ might actually get Michael to believe that he cared about him. If Michael believed it, he would insist to Carly and Jason that he got to spend time with him. To see Michael and AJ together—Carly just might have to admit that she was wrong about AJ. Carly could count on one hand the number of times that she'd admitted to being wrong, and concerning AJ, she didn't want to have to tick off another finger.

The entire time Carly spoke to Michael, AJ didn't say a word. When Carly looked up, he wasn't even looking at her. He wasn't looking at Michael's face. He alternated his stare from the bed Sonny had died in to Michael's hand gripping his own. What was he thinking? What devious plans were being hatched in his head that would get Michael into his custody?

With Sonny gone, AJ could easily get his parental rights back. Without Sonny around to buy judges, AJ might be able to convince somebody other than Emily that Sonny really had locked him in that meat locker and forced him to give up his rights. Even worse, he could have convinced her that Sonny had done. And at the edges of worst, he could possibly convince Jason. He had Emily on his side. With her help and no resistence, AJ could probably convince Jason easier than he could convince Carly.

"I know what Dad did." Carly turned her attention back to Michael. She stared at him in shock, her mouth slightly open. "I know he locked up AJ and made him give me away, but I can't be mad. I mean, I can be mad and I should be because that wasn't fair, but he did it because he loved me, right?"

Carly swallowed hard and nodded. Yes, she could admit to herself that part of the reason Sonny had done that was because of his overwhelming need to own everybody. Michael was his, Carly had given Michael to him, so he was going to hold onto his property. But, she also believed that Sonny did love him. He'd done whatever he had to do to keep the boy that he loved. "I don't know what Sonny did, Michael, but yes, he loved you."

"He did it," he said softly. "I know he did it. But, he did it out of love, and we all do things because we love somebody. And everything AJ said to me about Dad was because he loved me, too."

"So, you're forgiving AJ? Is that what you're telling me?"

"I don't know." Michael shrugged. "I just—I don't know if I hate him, anymore. Is that okay? That I don't hate AJ?"

Carly sighed. This wasn't the time to be hard on him. He was already in a state of confusion. She didn't need him to pull away from her, too, and with as tightly as he held AJ's hand, Carly knew that he would do just that. "Yeah, Michael. It's okay not to hate him."

Michael nodded and he didn't say anything else. Like he didn't have anything else to say. Carly squeezed his leg, and he looked down at her. She tried to smile at him, and he returned the attempt. With a sigh, she then pushed herself to her feet and looked to AJ. "Well? What do you have to say?"

"Does it really matter, Carly?"

"I'm being generous, AJ. Don't expect it too often. So, if you have something to say, just say it."

She prepared herself for some kind of tirade. Something to let her know that, even in the wake of Sonny's death, AJ still hated him. Instead, he said, "I didn't want him to die. I wanted my son, I wanted him out of my life, but I didn't want him to die."

Was her confusion because his thoughts so frighteningly mirrored her own? A mountain of guilt because he wasn't sad enough about another person's death? Probably. "You wanted him gone, AJ, and you'd have taken it anyway you got it."

"I'm not going to back down because he died, but I didn't want him dead." AJ sighed. "I just wanted him gone."

"Come on, AJ, be honest with me." Carly didn't want him to be so reasonable. She wanted him to be outrageous. She wanted him to be delirious so he'd say something that would make Michael take his hand away from him. "You got what you wanted."

"Yeah, but I didn't want it like this."

Carly sighed. She groaned. She stomped her foot. She put her hands on her hips and stomped her foot again. Concluding her mini tantrum, she turned to Michael and sighed. "Come on, Mr. Man, let's get out of here." She put her hand out to him. "They're letting people leave now and we should really get home to see Morgan and let Leticia know what happened."

Michael looked up at her and blinked. "Is it okay if I stay just a little while longer? I just wanna sit here a little more, okay? Please? Just a little."

Carly sighed and as he turned his head back to his hand holding AJ's, she almost told him no. Carly almost put her foot down and said they were leaving. She almost used Jason as an excuse, preparing to tell him that Jason would need him. But, right before she spoke, Michael turned his gaze back to the bed that his father had died in. He settled back into that bewildered state that so shockingly mirrored AJ's as he looked in the same direction… and Carly sighed.

"Fine. Just a little while longer. But, then… Then we have to go, okay?"

"Okay. Just a little bit more."

And he was still clutching AJ's hand.


	26. Farewell Part 1

_Author's Notes: Please be aware that this chapter and the next aren't in any specific timeline order. They are just how these people closed out their time during the epidemic. So, if they seem to jump around, that's because they do. I'm closing the people out in the reverse order that they entered the story.

* * *

_

Dillon fidgeted. He didn't like funerals. He didn't want to be at a funeral. Even though he rarely ever came by the mansion, Justus Ward was family and that meant that Dillon had to be at his funeral. He had to sit there and listen as everybody said these great things. One by one, the family went up there, giving some story about Justus. Edward segued into Mary Mae, and everybody cried. Even Tracy went up there, and somehow ended up at Grandmother, then back to Justus. They all went up there. All of them except Dillon, because he really didn't have that much to say.

Dillon really didn't know him. Sure, he knew his past with the family, and he knew about the things he'd done since coming back to Port Charles, but as a person, Dillon had to sadly admit that he really didn't know Justus Ward.

"Kinda screwed up, don't ya think?" He leaned into Georgie. She turned towards him, and she had tears in her eyes. That was kinda screwed up, he thought, but not what he was talking about. She didn't really know Justus that well, either. "I mean, this guy was my cousin, or something like that, and I didn't even know him."

"You've got a big family, Dillon," she whispered. "And everybody has their own lives."

"Yeah, I know." He sighed and faced the minister. "But still… I didn't know him all that well. I've gotta be the only Quartermaine that hasn't gotten up there and said anything about him."

"Well, do you want to?"

Dillon shrugged. "I didn't know him. I don't have anything to say."

Dillon shrank down in his chair, and slowly his head turned towards his mother. She was a viper. She was mean to everyone, Justus included, and yet, she sat there looking sad. She gave so much hell to so much of the family, but when they died, she was right there. You always had to love your family. You just didn't have to like them. There were a whole lot of Quartermaines that Tracy didn't like, but Dillon could see from her face that she loved them all. And when they left, she would miss them all.

"Do you want to say something?"

Dillon blinked up at his mother and shook his head. "I didn't really know him," he said with a sigh. Dillon turned back to face the minister again. Everyone was standing now, the service nearly over, and Dillon stood with him. He turned for the procession, for the family to go by and touch Justus's coffin, and he just followed along.

It was sad that Justus died. It was sad that Dillon hadn't gotten to know him well enough to actually have something to say at his funeral. But, and it felt so evil to say, so selfish and cruel, but at least he had lived. Dillon would miss Justus, and be saddened by the fact that he'd never get to know him, but in the end… In the end, Dillon was still alive, and at least he had the chance to mourn that fact.

* * *

"Are you sure you don't want to…" 

Alexis shook her head and put her hand against Ric's lips. "We've had enough funerals, Ric. I don't think I could take one more."

She closed her eyes and leaned back on the sofa. Three funerals in two days had been too much. Alexis hadn't known what to say to Nikolas or Luke. Seated behind them at Lucky's funeral, she could only look at them, knowing there was nothing she could do to help her friend or her nephew in their grief. So many people had already told Luke that it wasn't his fault. He didn't need one more person telling him. Emily kept telling Nikolas not to feel guilty because he survived. Alexis telling him again was redundant.

But, she had tried both. She spoke to them, telling them the same things they'd heard over and over again, and there was nothing there. It didn't help them. It didn't ease their pain. They just took the words with downcast eyes and heavy hearts. For once, Luke and Nikolas were on the same page, and while this would cause most people to bond, Lucky's death would only drive them further apart. Alexis could only hope that, in his grief, Luke didn't start another Cassadine war.

Then there were the funerals of Sonny and Courtney. The services were held together, and they were buried together. Kristina didn't understand what was going on. She sat next to Morgan, and he didn't understand either. Beside him was Michael, and unfortunately, he understood all too well. The children kept their mothers separated. Two mothers who would have to find a way to explain this entire thing to their children but didn't know how to do that.

There was another reason for discomfort at the funeral, though. Lucky's funeral had been family, friends, and his fellow police officers. Lucky had gotten a full police funeral with salute and everything. In comparison, Sonny's funeral was something out of a mob movie. There were people there that Alexis remembered from her days as Sonny's attorney. There were other faces there that she didn't recognize. Those that she knew and those that she didn't made a procession past Jason when the funeral ended. The air was very tense, full of sights that Alexis didn't want to see.

Another funeral was just… it was too much.

Justus was a colleague, a friend on some levels. Alexis had friends within the Quartermaine family. She and Ned had been on strange terms for years, but she still wanted to be there for him. She felt that she should have gone, should have stood there to tell Justus goodbye, but… She just couldn't.

"As much as I want to give my goodbyes to Justus," she told Ric, "I can't go through another one. I have to find some way to tell Kristina that her father is gone. I have to find some way to help Nikolas and Luke." She reached out and lightly touched Ric's cheek. "And as close as you and Sonny were becoming, as much as I hated it… I know this is hard for you, too."

Ric sighed and took hold of her hand. He brought it around from his cheek to press his lips against her knuckles. "When I first came here, I wanted him to suffer. I wanted to kill him. Now, he's dead and… I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't know how I'm supposed to feel."

"He was your brother, Ric. If you're holding back anguish on my account, don't bother. No matter what I felt towards Sonny, he was still your brother."

"Are you glad that he's gone? That the danger is gone?"

"Ric…" She stopped. Was she glad that Kristina was out of danger? Of course. As a mother, all she wanted was for her children to be safe. Kristina and Molly were both safe now, because they didn't have to worry about the danger of their relations. But, did she want him dead… "I haven't wished Sonny was dead in a long time, Ric. I just wanted him to leave us alone."

"But…"

Alexis sighed and shook her head. "But, if my choices were him butting in our lives, constantly battling for Kristina, and having him dead, I would choose the first. Kristina doesn't deserve to go through this, and if I could save her from that, I would put up with Sonny for the rest of our lives."

* * *

AJ stood on the edge of the lawn, just behind the bushes. He didn't have any right there, and if Emily knew he had planned to go, she would have tried to stop him. He didn't even know why he'd shown up. He didn't really want to be there. He didn't care to watch Sonny's funeral, but something in him and drawn him there. He felt like he had to be there. Like he was supposed to be there. Like he had some kind of duty to be there. 

He had watched him die. AJ had been more lucid than he wanted to be when Sonny died. For all of the time that he'd been unconscious in the hospital, why couldn't he have been at that moment? Why did he have to be awake to hear the doctors working on Sonny? To hear them trying to bring him back.

He hadn't known that Michael was actually there to witness it until he'd told Carly. AJ hadn't seen Michael until it was all over and Sonny was taken from the room. He knew that his son had seen Sonny's body. He didn't know that he'd actually watched him die.

When Michael came into the room, he didn't say anything. He just sat down beside AJ, in the chair that Emily had left at his bedside. He sat down and took his hand, then the two of them just stared. They stared until Michael was finally taken home by Carly, and then AJ stared some more. Sonny was gone, and maybe now, AJ had a chance with his son. But for someone to die to get to that point… AJ knew that Sonny could have killed him to get his hands on Michael, might have even done it. AJ didn't want to go through those means to get Michael. He just wanted his son to want him.

And then there was Courtney. Didn't want her to dead, but he had to admit that he really didn't care that much. As a life lost, her death made AJ sad. As anything else… She'd been nothing to him for years. Her death, to AJ, was like a stranger's death. Sad in its occurrence, but nothing that would make him lose any sleep.

"AJ?" He shook his head and looked up, then he looked down. "What are you doing here?"

"I…" AJ shook his head. "I don't know." He sighed and looked across the lawn. Jason wouldn't come, because he was too busy with the procession of mob bosses that came to pay their respects. Carly looked like she would leave her place at the caskets to bring Michael back, but she had to hold on to Morgan. "You should be with your mom."

Michael shrugged. "I wanted to come over here. I guess I just wanted to make sure you weren't gonna cause trouble."

"You should know by now that I'm not gonna do that, Michael. You should have learned that in the past few days."

"I know." He shrugged again. "I guess I just don't have another reason." Michael turned behind him, looking towards his mother, then turned back to AJ. "There's gonna be a lot of people at the house after the funeral."

"Usually are," he told him. "I'm expecting as much tomorrow with Justus's funeral."

"I don't really want to be there, though. So, um, if I decide to leave and I leave a note for Mom…"

"Michael, you're not supposed to just run off."

Once more, he shrugged. "I'm just letting you know, I might run off. After about an hour or so. I'll probably go to the park. I'm just saying. I'll probably be at the park in a hour or two."

With that, he turned and walked off. The second he reached her, Carly was asking questions that AJ couldn't hear. And right then, he didn't care, because he had to leave. He had to go and sit in the park, because in an hour or two, Michael would be there.


	27. Farewell Part 2

_Author's Notes: Thanks to everyone who read this story. Thank you for all of your great comments. The story is now over, but I'm glad that you all enjoyed it so much.

* * *

_

"This feels wrong." Nikolas looked down at his hands. There wasn't the slightest tremor in them anymore. He felt healthier than he'd been his entire life. He was alive and well, but his brother was gone. "My uncle is planning a wedding. As we sit here, he's in the office on the phone, calling people to make arrangements. This doesn't feel right."

"Do you not want to do this anymore, Nikolas?" Emily looked up at him, and there was such desperation in her eyes. Such pleading. "Do you not want to get married?"

He shook his head. "It's not that. I love you, Emily, and I want to marry you, but… I don't know how to do this without Lucky here." He sighed. "It's hard to do this without Lucky here. To have Uncle doing all of this, helping."

Even when the Musketeers broke up, Lucky had been behind this love that had grown between Nikolas and Emily. Like he'd been waiting for it to happen, expecting it to happen, and he was just so glad that they'd finally realized it. That Emily had seen that this was more than a crush. That Nikolas had realized how much he loved Emily.

It was the only time that the four of them could sit together and be on good terms. With the focus on Nikolas and Emily, it was like the old days. It was back when Lucky and Elizabeth were going to be together forever. The four sat around at able at Kelly's and planned the wedding of the century. But now… Now, it was all shattered.

Lucky was gone, and this time, he wasn't coming back. He wouldn't make a miraculous appearance. They wouldn't go on some dangerous mission to make sure that he stayed alive. Lucky was gone, and there was no Lucky and Liz.

Elizabeth had Alcazar. She would be there for the wedding. She would stand next to Emily as though things were the same, but Lucky wouldn't be on the other side of Nikolas, making eyes at her. Of course, it almost meant that Liz and Lucky wouldn't be fighting, either, but that was a small price to pay to have him there.

Elizabeth was still around, but in the end, it was now just Nikolas and Emily. They would have a wedding with friends and family. They would have a wedding with Cassadine business associates. Even Emily's mobster brother had agreed to attend the wedding. But Lucky wouldn't be there, and it seemed wrong to be concentrating on something that would exclude him, when it originally had so much to do with him.

"Lucky wanted this," Emily told him. "He wanted us to get married, and… he wanted your uncle to stop fighting us. Ya know, Lucky was really selfish sometimes, and he let himself get caught up in the Cassadine versus Spencer thing, but in the end… Ya know, I think he'd be glad that if nothing else came out of this thing, that it meant that we wouldn't have to fight Stefan for our wedding."

"I know. I can hear him grousing and grumbling, annoyed that Uncle is in the middle of it. Telling us that he'll take the wedding over for himself, but he'd do it with some satisfaction because at least he was helping instead of hindering."

"So, let's think about that, okay?" She swallowed hard. "I've cried so hard, and I'm still crying. I'm crying with you. For you. For Lucky and everybody else, but… We have to live, Nikolas. We've said goodbye, and now we have to say hello to our life. And if that sounds selfish, I don't know what else to do. I don't know what else to say."

"You're not selfish, Emily. You're right. I just… I have to go forward, because if I go backward, I'll never get forward again."

* * *

"Pop would have come, but he didn't think that he should be here." Diego looked nervously around the room. He didn't know most of the people there, but he bet his father knew them. "If you don't want me here, I can go." 

"Diego, no, it's fine." Carly sighed and put a hand on his shoulder. "I'm glad to see you looking so well."

He'd felt the need to be there. To stop by and give his condolences. Sure, the other people there wouldn't care to see him, but Carly had saved his life. If it weren't for her, he would have been dead. If nothing else, he had to give her some kind of support. It was the decent thing to do.

"I told Pop that he should come with me, but…" Diego shrugged.

Carly picked up his sentence. "But, he didn't want to cause me anymore grief." She sighed. "That's your father. Always thinking about me. That's something about you Alcazar men. You do a lot of wrong things, but when it comes to us, you do what you think is right."

That was a strange way of putting it, but Diego guessed she was right. He didn't know his uncle that well, but hadn't he done the same thing for Elizabeth Webber? Saved her the trouble of an uncomfortable situation, even though he wanted to be there with her? Diego had been there for his friends at Justus's funeral, even if they didn't really notice that he was there. Well, Georgie did, but Dillon was in his own world. But that's how it went with funerals. Your own world, your own place to mourn.

"I haven't had the chance to thank you," he told her. "You didn't have to do what you did, and I know that you really didn't do it for me. But, you did go out there, and you brought back a cure. I should thank you for that."

"Ya know, Diego, I think I did do it for you, in a way." She shrugged. "I did it for you, and even though I didn't like him, I did it for your uncle, because if the two of you died, Lorenzo would be lost to everybody. He'd go back in that place, ya know? It's not safe in that place, that zone he goes to in his grief. He went there for a while with Sage, and I really didn't want him to go there again."

"So, you're saying you did it for Pop?"

"I'm saying… I don't know what I'm saying." She sighed and shook her head. "I did it for Lorenzo, but I did it for you, too. He loves you, Diego."

"I know. I mean, I know that, now." He shrugged. "We had a lot of problems, ya know? But, when I got sick, he was right there. I kept trying to tell him to go on his date, and he kept telling me that I was more important. I never thought that I'd be more important than anyone else in his life."

"You're his son, Diego. Trust in that, alright? Trust that he loves you and… don't let this whole thing have been just one thing you forget in your past. Remember what happened, and how we all got to where we are, because that's important."

"And where are we, anyway?"

"We're… we're at a point where everything has changed, and we have to accept that. We've all got hard choices to make, but yours are easy."

"And that is?"

"Love your father, Diego." Carly turned slowly and her eyes settled on Morgan sitting on the sofa next to Kristina, both of their heads down. "Love your father, and tell him that you love him, because you never know when the chance to do that will be taken away from you."

* * *

His leg seemed even weaker, now. As Luis moved around his brother's home, leaning heavily on his cane, he could feel his leg trying to give out on him. It screamed like it had done back when he first began to walk on it. The pain was almost unbearable, but he had to fight through it. He had to be back on his feet and able to move without giving too much away. He always had the cane, would always have to use it, but he didn't have to leave so heavily on it. 

As soon as he was back to normal, he could go back to his yacht. Luis was waiting for construction on his house to be finished. The yacht had been temporary, when he didn't know that he would be staying in Port Charles. Now, though, he had reason to stay. He knew that he would only be leaving if forced, and he didn't see anything happening that would cause that any time soon.

He was going to stay for her. He knew that was the reason, else he'd have already been gone. Luis had a wandering soul, he'd once been told. Staying in one place for too long made his skin crawl, but for Elizabeth… She was the reason he stayed in Port Charles, and the idea of staying in town suddenly didn't seem so foreign, or so horrible.

"Why are you up? I knew I should have tried harder to make you stay in the hospital." He looked up and Elizabeth was standing there, watching him with disapproval. She held Cameron by the hand, and the little boy tried to pull away from her. "I, um, the guards let me in."

Luis nodded, then turned to walk towards her. He moved slowly, and his leg shook with each step. "I have to be on my feet, Elizabeth," he said softly. "I'm not the kind to sit and wait for things to happen."

"You're still weak, Luis." She moved towards him, and for a second, he thought that her steps would falter. Was there some look on his face? The only thing he could think that he would be showing was pure adoration. "I…"

"Cameron apparently has some issue with being here."

"What?" She looked down at him, then shook her head. "Oh no, it's not that. He's been asking for you for days." She stopped short, pressing her lips together. "I could only keep him away for so long. Apparently, resting isn't his strong suit, either."

"Then let him go, Elizabeth. I'm still strong enough to hold a young child in my arms." She stared to speak and Luis put up his hand. "I'll even sit down for him. I wouldn't pick him up when I know that I might send us both crashing to the floor."

She didn't say anything, though Luis had expected her to protest in some fashion. Instead, she waited until he was seated on the sofa, then let the boy go. Cameron ran across the room and jumped up into Luis's lap. Luis held back the pained scream that threatened to crawl up from his throat. He bit his lip, then smiled at Cameron. A child hadn't run to him with such enthusiasm since Sage was a little girl. He wasn't going to let his pain ruin his moment.

"I'm sorry," Elizabeth said quickly. "This is my fault. The pain your in…" Luis looked up to see her head shaking. "Lorenzo made it my choice, and I shouldn't have… I just… I thought pain was better than you dying, and for all I know, you might be wishing that I'd just let you go, but I couldn't do that. I couldn't stand by and watch you die if I could do something. Cameron has already lost his father, and he lost Lucky long ago. We both lost him before you ever came into our lives. I couldn't take someone else from him. I couldn't… I couldn't let myself lose someone else. So, if you don't even want to see me again, if you're mad that I let you be in such pain, then just say it, and I'll go. I'll still let you see Cameron if you want, because he wants to see you, but I—"

"Your mother rambles," Luis told Cameron with a soft smile. The boy nodded and Luis laughed. He looked up to Elizabeth and told her, "I don't want you to go anywhere."

"But…"

"Lorenzo has told me everything that I said in delirium, and you need to know that I meant every word. The fever and the illness merely gave me the freedom to say them. I've fallen in love, though I tried my best to not do that, but I have. Knowing that selfishness caused this pain makes it all the more bearable. Because it means that you care enough for me to be selfish. So, the question is not whether I want you to leave, but if you will sit here with Cameron and me, and give me a moment of happiness that relieves the pain instead of a pill."

Luis put his hand out to her, and he didn't have to wait long. Elizabeth took his hand. She sat down. And for a while, the pain wasn't quite so bad.

* * *

Sam watched at the funeral as one after another, people who had to be mob affiliated came up to Jason to lend his condolensces. She watched at Sonny's house as they came to him and paid tribute. She listened as whispers of a meeting were made, and talk was made of Jason's obligations. And she listened while Jason told them all that he would handle everything when he came back. 

She wasn't stupid. Once the shock of Sonny's death had worn off, Sam's mind went straight to what it meant. Jason would have to take his place. He had never wanted to run the territory, but there was no way he would give it to someone else. Everything had been left to him, and he had to take care of things. He had to push his own grief aside and take care of business. But he said that it could wait.

"I told Danny that we would go to Hawaii," he said with a groan. They were back in the penthouse. Danny was asleep upstairs. Jason stared out the window, his hands in his pockets. His suit jacket and tie were gone, but the slacks and black shirt were still there. He looked wholly uncomfortable. "I told Danny that we'd go, and that's what we're doing. We're going to Hawaii, and the rest of this mess can wait until we get back."

Sam sighed and walked up behind him. She pressed her cheek to Jason's back. She wrapped her arms around his waist. She squeezed him and let out a heavy breath. "Danny will understand, Jason. You have important things to do here."

"Danny shouldn't have to understand. You shouldn't have to understand. How many times did business get put to the side because Sonny had to—" He stopped and ran his hand over his head. "I can't believe I'm even thinking about this. I shouldn't have to do this, Sam. He wasn't supposed to die on me."

"Why? Because Sonny never dies? Because everyone else dies and he lives? Jason, sometimes, this happens."

"But he wasn't supposed to die. Is it my fault?"

"Jason?"

"I didn't think about him, Sam." He turned away from the window and Sam slid around his body. When he stopped moving, her head was against his stomach. Arms still around him, Sam leaned back and looked up. "When I went to get that chimp, I was thinking about you and Danny."

"You're allowed to have your own family, Jason. I'm sorry that he's gone, but… Don't beat yourself up over this."

"He was like a brother to me, Sam. We've been through a lot together, and yeah, Sonny's taken a lot from me, but I always forgave him. How could he forgive me for letting him die?"

"Jason, you did what you could. You can't do everything. You can't help everyone. You can't save everyone." Sam sighed and shook her head. "Maybe it is good that we go to Hawaii, now. You can't handle this, and you need to get away. This isn't our vacation, Jason, it's yours. You have to be ready to take over, and you can't do that until you've had time to think. Until you've had time to grieve."

"I've grieved," he told her. "I've cried. I've done everything that nobody expects the robot Jason to do."

"You're not a robot. You're a person, and you just handle things differently. You're taking this all in without any thought to yourself. It's about what you promised Danny. What you promised me. What you owe the other families. What you owe to Sonny. What do you owe yourself, Jason?"

He started to speak, then stopped as there was a knock on the door. Max peeked his head inside and said, "Jason? Lorenzo Alcazar is here to see you."

Jason sighed and before Sam could tell him to make Alcazar wait, Jason said, "Okay, Max, send him in." He looked down at Sam and admitted, "I owe myself a break."

"Then take one." She stretched herself up and it was Jason's cue to lean down. He kissed her softly and Sam murmurred against his lips. She lowered herself back to her feet, then pulled away from him. "I'll be upstairs with Danny," she told him. "We'll start packing." Jason nodded, and Sam left him to handle his business.

Because it was his business now.


End file.
